Court of Justice (Second Chamber) 14 March 2013, C‑527/11 (Valsts ieņēmumu dienests v Ablessio SIA.)

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The Court of Justice (Second Chamber) held that Articles 213, 214, and 273 of Directive 2006/112/EC preclude a national tax authority from refusing to assign a VAT identification number to a company solely on the grounds that the company lacks material, technical, and financial resources to carry out its declared economic activity, or that its shareholder previously obtained VAT numbers for companies that never conducted real economic activity and whose shares were transferred shortly after registration. A refusal to assign a VAT identification number must be based on an overall assessment of all circumstances and sound objective evidence establishing a probable risk that the number will be used fraudulently, in accordance with the principle of proportionality. It falls to the referring national court to assess whether the tax authority (Valsts ieņēmumu dienests) provided sufficient evidence of a risk of tax evasion in the proceedings concerning Ablessio SIA.AI