The VAT permanent establishment replacing the parent company is admitted

A company that is dependent but autonomous from a legal point of view cannot be considered at the same time as a permanent establishment of another company in the group. Article 44 of the VAT directive refers in fact to a taxable person who has established the headquarters of his economic activity in one place and has a stable organization in another.

However, two companies in a group - as in the present case - do not constitute one taxable person, but rather two. Only Article 11 of the VAT Directive allows Member States, in certain circumstances, to 'regard as a single taxable person' (so-called 'VAT group') several taxable persons who are closely linked. However, this possibility is limited to the territory of the Member State concerned ('persons established in the territory of the same Member State'). Even the additional substantive criteria set out in Article 44 of the VAT Directive, specified in more detail in Article 11(1) of the Implementing Regulation, do not allow the conclusion that the corporate link with another taxable person would facilitate the existence of a permanent establishment. organization.

Therefore, the mere fact that a company from another Member State and a company in the national territory are part of the same group does not allow the conclusion of the existence in the national territory of a permanent establishment within the meaning of Article 44, sec...