Case C‑625/17

Vorarlberger Landes- und Hypothekenbank AG

v

Finanzamt Feldkirch

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Articles 56 and 63 TFEU — Freedom to provide services and free movement of capital — Credit institutions — Stability charge and the special contribution for that charge determined according to the unconsolidated balance sheet total of credit institutions established in Austria — Inclusion of cross-border banking transactions — Exclusion of subsidiaries’ transactions in another Member State — Difference in treatment — Restriction — Justification)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 22 November 2018

Freedom to provide services — Restrictions — Tax legislation — Taxation of credit institutions — National legislation imposing a stability charge and a special contribution for that charge determined according to the unconsolidated balance sheet total of resident credit institutions — Inclusion of services not supplied to non-resident clients by the credit institution through a foreign permanent credit institution — Exclusion of services supplied to non-resident clients by non-resident subsidiaries — Lawfulness

(Art. 56 TFEU)

Article 56 TFEU must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, in so far as it imposes on credit institutions established in Austria, such as the credit institution at issue in the main proceedings, which do not supply services to their clients resident in other Member States through permanent credit institutions established in those Member States, a charge determined according to the ‘average unconsolidated balance sheet total’, which includes the banking transactions which those institutions enter into directly with nationals of other Member States, whilst excluding the same transactions entered into by subsidiaries of credit institutions established in Austria where those subsidiaries are established in other Member States.

(see para 44, operative part)