Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 17 October 2018 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court — Ireland) — Ryanair Ltd v The Revenue Commissioners

(Case C-249/17) ¹

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Common system of value added tax (VAT) — Concept of taxable person — Holding company — Deduction of input tax — Expenditure for consultancy services received for the purpose of the acquisition of another company’s shares — Acquiring company’s intention to provide management services to the target company — Those services not provided — Right to deduct VAT charged on the services received)

Language of the case: English

Referring court

Supreme Court

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Ryanair Ltd

Defendant: The Revenue Commissioners

Operative part of the judgment

Articles 4 and 17 of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment must be interpreted as conferring on a company, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which intends to acquire all the shares of another company in order to pursue an economic activity consisting in the provision of management services subject to value added tax (VAT) to that other company, the right to deduct, in full, input VAT paid on expenditure relating to consultancy services provided in the context of a takeover bid, even if ultimately that economic activity was not carried out, provided that the exclusive reason for that expenditure is to be found in the intended economic activity.

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¹ OJ C 221, 10.7.2017.