Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber) of 16 October 2019 (requests for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesfinanzhof - Germany) – Michael Winterhoff, acting as liquidator of DIREKTexpress Holding AG v Finanzamt Ulm (C-4/18) and Jochen Eisenbeis, acting as liquidator of JUREX GmbH v Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (C-5/18)
(Joined Cases C-4/18 and C-5/18) 1
(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Taxation — Common system of value added tax (VAT) — Directive 2006/112/EC — Article 132(1)(a) — Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest — Public postal services — Directive 97/67/EC — Universal postal service provider — Private operator providing the service of formally serving court or administrative authority documents)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Bundesfinanzhof
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicants: Michael Winterhoff, acting as liquidator of DIREKTexpress Holding AG (C-4/18) and Jochen Eisenbeis, acting as liquidator of JUREX GmbH (C-5/18)
Defendants: Finanzamt Ulm (C-4/18), Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (C-5/18)
Operative part of the judgment
Article 2(13) and Article 3 of Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service, as amended by Directive 2008/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 must be interpreted as meaning that providers of services consisting in the service of items of correspondence, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, who, in their capacity as holders of a national licence permitting them to supply that service are required to effect, in accordance with provisions of national law, the formal service of court or administrative authority documents, must be regarded as ‘universal service providers’, in accordance with those provisions, so that those services must be exempt from value added tax as services effected by the ‘public postal services’ under Article 132 (1)(a) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax.
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1 OJ C 123, 9.4.2018.