Portugal imposed a tax on television advertising which the television companies paid (and recharged to the advertisers). The tax authority issued a ruling that this tax formed part of the companies’ turnover for VAT purposes. In TVI Televisăo Independente SA v Fazenda Pública (Case C-618/11) a television company appealed and the case was referred to the CJEU for a ruling on the interpretation of Article 11A1 of the EC Sixth Directive. Advocate-General Cruz Villalón expressed the Opinion that the tax should be included in the company’s turnover ‘if the decisive fiscal relationship of public law character is between the tax authorities and the television operators’ but not if ‘the decisive fiscal relationship of public law character runs between the advertisers and the tax authorities’. It was for the national court to determine ‘which of these two understandings of the nature of fiscal substitution in the precise...
