Ex officio Application of EC Law by National Courts of Law in Tax Cases, Discretionary Authority or an Obligation?

Abstract

Individual taxpayers can make a direct appeal to EC law which is sufficiently precise and unconditional for national courts of law. However, if a taxpayer fails to make an appeal to a clear infringement of EC law during a court procedure, the question arises whether a national court is authorized, or even obliged, to consider of its own motion whether a domestic tax provision is incompatible with EC law. In this article the applicable Community procedural framework as developed by the ECJ is depicted, which framework can be considered as a minimum harmonization of the national procedural law provisions of the various Member States. Subsequently, the conditions under which a domestic court is obliged to apply EC law of its own initiative are discussed. For illustration purposes the Dutch procedural rules in tax cases are assessed within the Community procedural framework.