Key Trends in the Case Law of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania in Application of European Union Law in Tax Disputes

Abstract

The article analyses cases of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania and the impact the case-law of the European Court of Justice has made in this area of administrative legal relations. The dual nature of regulation in the tax sphere, where certain taxes and customs are directly regulated by EU law, while other taxes are left for the competence of the Member States, makes it an area of legal relations particularly perceptive to jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. The analysis is focused on two types of cases – cases concerning value added tax and the right of a taxable person to deduct it, where the directive of the European Union is applicable; and cases concerning external trade of the EU, where the European Union Customs Code applies. As far as the application of the European Union Customs Code is concerned, the article limits itself to cases related to unlawfully imported goods into the customs territory of the European Union goods, which are subject to excise duty. The author of the article comes to a conclusion that from a twenty-year perspective of EU law application in the case-law of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, a clear trend towards consistency with the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice and a tendency to refer to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling is observed.