On 12 February 2015 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a preliminary ruling on a value added tax (VAT) case that had been referred to it by the Portuguese Supreme Administrative Tribunal. The question raised In the case of Surgicare – Unidades de Saude SA v Fazenda Publica was that when the tax authorities suspect the existence of an abusive practice designed to obtain a VAT refund and Portuguese law provides for a mandatory preliminary procedure applicable to abusive practices in taxation matters, is that procedure inapplicable to VAT, as that tax has a European Community origin?
The ECJ gave its preliminary ruling that the Directive does not preclude the mandatory preliminary application of a national administrative procedure such as that in Portugal if the tax authorities suspect the existence of an abusive practice.
