In OKG AB v Skatteverket (C-606/13) (1 October 2015) the CJEU found that a tax on the thermal power of a reactor did not come within the ambit of Directive 2003/96 restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (the ‘Directive’).
Under Swedish law a tax was payable on the ‘thermal power’ (i.e. the heat production capacity) of a nuclear reactor. OKG operated a nuclear plant and contended that the tax constituted an excise duty on electricity generation contrary to the Directive. It argued that there was a direct link between the thermal power and the electricity generated by it.
The Directive applies to the ‘taxation of energy products and electricity’. The CJEU therefore had to decide whether the thermal power of a reactor was within its scope. It noted that the Directive contained an exhaustive list of ‘energy products’ and that the nuclear...
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