X v Skatteverket

In X v Skatteverket (ECJ Case C-84/09) an individual (X) who was resident in Sweden decided to purchase a sailing boat in the UK and use it for recreational purposes in the UK for a few months before sailing it to Sweden.

The Swedish tax authority issued a preliminary ruling that X would be treated as making an intra-Community acquisition of a new means of transport and would be required to account for VAT in Sweden. X appealed contending that he should not be required to pay Swedish VAT because by the time when the boat entered Swedish waters he would have used it for more than three months and sailed it for more than 100 hours.

The case was referred to the ECJ for a ruling on the interpretation of Article 20 of Directive 2006/112/EC. The ECJ found in favour of the Swedish...