Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Freedom to provide services - Restrictions - Deduction of expenditure related to professional training courses from taxable income - National legislation introducing a presumption that expenditure relating to courses organised in other Member States is non-deductible - Not permissible - Whether justified on grounds of public interest or by the need to preserve fiscal cohesion - No such justification

(EC Treaty, Art. 59 (now, after amendment, Art 49 EC))

Summary

$$Article 59 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 49 EC) precludes a Member State from having rules which, for the purposes of determining taxable income, are based on the presumption that professional training courses held in ordinary tourist resorts located in other Member States involve such a significant tourism element that the costs of taking part in those courses cannot be treated as deductible operating costs, whereas there is no such presumption in the case of professional training courses held in ordinary tourist resorts located within the territory of that Member State.

Such rules, which make it more difficult to deduct costs relating to participation in professional training courses organised abroad than to deduct costs relating to such courses organised in the national territory involve a difference in treatment, based on the place where the service is provided, which cannot be justified by the need to preserve fiscal cohesion or by the need for effective fiscal supervision.