On 13 March 2014, the CJEU handed down five judgments on fiscal neutrality. As barrister Frank Mitchell observes, the decisions are 'difficult to reconcile' and 'pull the law in different directions'.
The manner in which jurisprudence evolves is by way of ebb and flow until such time as the settling point is found. Fiscal neutrality which has been a fundamental concept since VAT was first conceived shot centre stage upon the delivery of the judgment in Rank (joined cases C-259/10 and C-260/10). There though admittedly not for the first time the CJEU reached a decision which was anchored firmly in the concept of fiscal neutrality as an expression of the principle of equal treatment. The court had of course previously reached decisions where it had referenced the importance of...
