In T Ispas and A Ispas v Direcţia Generală a Finanţelor Publice Cluj (Case C-298/16) (9 November 2017) the CJEU found that a taxpayer upon whom a VAT assessment is imposed is entitled to access the information considered by the public authority when it adopted its decision unless objectives of public interest warrant restricting access to that information.
Mr and Ms Ispas had built and sold apartments in Romania. The tax authorities considered that the sales had been taxable transactions subject to VAT and issued assessments accordingly. The taxpayers challenged these assessments on the ground that they should have been given access to all the relevant information which had led to the issuing of the assessments in order to be in a position to challenge them.
The CJEU observed that the respect for the rights of the defence is a general principle of EU law which...
