Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Preliminary rulings - Jurisdiction of the Court - Limits - Contrived dispute or request for interpretation of provisions of Community law manifestly inapplicable in the main proceedings

(EC Treaty, Art. 177)

2 Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover tax - Common system of value added tax - Deduction of input tax paid - Obligations of the taxable person - Possession of an invoice - Invoice - Definition - Possibility for the Member States to allow as an invoice documents other than the original invoice

(Council Directive 77/388, Arts 18(1)(a) and 22(3))

Summary

3 Provided that the questions submitted to it for a preliminary ruling concern the interpretation of a provision of Community law, the Court gives its ruling without, in principle, having to look into the circumstances in which a national court was prompted to submit the questions and envisages applying the provision of Community law which it has asked the Court to interpret.

The matter would be different only if it were apparent either that the procedure provided for in Article 177 of the Treaty had been diverted from its true purpose and was being used in fact to lead the Court to give a ruling by means of a contrived dispute, or that the provision of Community law referred to the Court for interpretation was manifestly incapable of applying.

4 In the context of the right of a person subject to value added tax to deduct from the tax which he is liable to pay the amount of input tax paid, Article 18(1)(a) and Article 22(3) of the Sixth Directive (77/388) on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes permit the Member States, who are given the power to determine the rules relating to supervision of the exercise of the right to deduct input tax and in particular the manner in which taxable persons are to establish that right, to regard as an invoice not only the original but also any other document serving as an invoice that fulfils the criteria determined by the Member States themselves, and confer on them the power to require production of the original invoice in order to establish the right to deduct input tax, as well as the power, where a taxable person no longer holds the original, to admit other evidence that the transaction in respect of which the deduction is claimed actually took place.