In Wroclaw v Minister Finansów C-276/14 (29 September 2015) the CJEU found that municipal entities did not have the required level of independence to be taxable persons.
The issue was whether municipal budgetary entities linked to a municipality were taxable persons or whether the municipality itself was the taxable person. These entities included schools cultural centres district inspectorates and police services.
The CJEU noted that taxable person means ‘any person who independently carries out in any place any economic activity whatever the purpose or results of that activity’ (Principal VAT Directive art 9(1)). It added that public bodies were excluded in relation to economic activities in which they engaged as public authorities (art 13(1)) but it was accepted that this exclusion did not apply. The question was therefore whether municipal budgetary entities independently carried out the economic activities concerned and should as a...
