principle of fiscal neutrality | principle of tax neutrality

fiscal neutrality | tax neutrality

equitable common fiscal policy | impartial application of tax | tax neutrality

principle of fiscal equivalence | fiscal equivalence

Can the principles of repayment based on fiscal neutrality and of effectiveness, equivalence and equal treatment be regarded as satisfied, and the prohibition on unjust enrichment complied with, where — owing to legislation on the right to deduct that is contrary to European Union law — the tax authority of a Member State only upholds the taxpayer’s claim for repayment or damages in relation to that part or proportion not previously funded through the aid referred to in the first two questions?

The Authority understands the reasoning of the Commission to be that where the national law pertaining to stamp duties in connection with conversions made by private undertakings builds upon a general principle of tax neutrality — so that the focus is on the continuation of the same economic entity rather than on whether the legal subject used thereto is the same — it will be within the logic of such a tax regime to extend that principle also to cover situations whereby the State or a municipality separates an economic entity that has hitherto been driven as a part of the State or municipality into a separate legal entity.

However, the Italian authorities had explained that Italian law generally reflected the principle of tax neutrality (which means that no tax is applied) in the context of the conversion of the legal status of a company (i.e. ‘when the legal status of a firm changes but the firm remains the same from an economic viewpoint’) (49).

The principle of fiscal neutrality requires that individual performers should not be treated differently from cultural groups in respect of exemption from vat