EC Commission v Republic of Hungary

Hungarian legislation provided that for property tax purposes a purchaser of residential property could deduct the value of another Hungarian residential property which was sold within 12 months of the purchase. This deduction was only available for sales of residential property in Hungary and was not available for sales of residential property elsewhere in the EU. In EC Commission v Republic of Hungary (ECJ Case C-253/09) the Commission took proceedings in the ECJ contending that this was a breach of what is now Article 21 of the Lisbon Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Advocate-General Mazák rejected the Commission’s contentions observing that ‘the situation of a taxable person who has purchased and sold residential property on Hungarian territory is with regard to the content and purpose of the tax legislation at issue objectively different from that of a taxable person...