LEX report: Polish attorneys win most tax cases before the CJEU

Lesław Mazur, tax advisor, partner at Thedy & Partners was asked by the portal to comment. In it, he emphasised that the main task of the CJEU’s jurisprudence is to ensure uniform interpretation throughout the EU of one and the same provisions of EU law. Contrary to popular belief, the CJEU does not rule on the incompatibility of national regulations with EU law, but on how EU law should be understood in the context of the regulations of a given member state. CJEU rulings – as opposed to rulings by Polish courts – apply not only to the cases in which they were made, but also to all other cases with a similar legal issue and regardless of the instance. They are binding on all authorities and courts throughout the Union and thus bring EU law closer to the system of precedent law.

The significance of CJEU rulings in the Polish legal system can be seen, inter alia, through the possibility of resuming proceedings before tax authorities and administrative courts in a situation where the CJEU has interpreted a given EU provision differently from the way it was interpreted in a final or binding decision of the tax authorities/administrative courts. Therefore, it is worth following the CJEU case law even after losing a case at the national level: the CJEU judgments give hope for a change of a negative ruling (although one has to be careful about statutes of limitations).

It has been observed that Polish administrative courts are cautious in submitting preliminary questions to the CJEU, giving priority to national case law so that it first develops a line of jurisprudence (each national court is also an EU court). It is only when there is a divergence in national case law that the national court generally reaches out to the CJEU.

The entire article is available at this link: Polscy pełnomocnicy odnoszą sukcesy w sprawach podatkowych przed TSUE (prawo.pl)