Prunus Sarl v Directeur des Services Fiscaux

In Prunus Sarl v Directeur des Services Fiscaux (ECJ Case C-384/09) the tax authority ruled that a company (P) which had its registered office in France could not benefit from an exemption from tax on immovable property on the grounds that P’s effective centre of management was in the British Virgin Islands. P appealed contending that the relevant French legislation contravened Article 63 of the Lisbon Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The case was referred to the ECJ. Advocate-General Cruz Villalón rejected P’s contentions holding that Article 63 did not preclude national legislation which made entitlement to exemption ‘conditional on the existence of a convention on administrative assistance to combat tax evasion and avoidance concluded between France and that State or on there being a requirement under a treaty containing a clause prohibiting discrimination on grounds of nationality that those legal...