Application of the concept of tax evasion in individual Member States of the European Union

” The Never Ending Story of Tax Fraud aud” – the seminar with this title in Vilnius, Lithuania, was attended by Katarína Cangárová, a judge of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic.

“Tax cases related to the right to deduct VAT constitute a significant proportion of the cases decided by the Supreme Administrative Court and the majority of the cases decided by the panel of which I am a member. In view of the current development of the case law of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, as well as the decision-making practice of the financial administration, tax fraud is increasingly used as a reason for non-recognition of the right to deduct VAT. In the future, we can also expect more frequent application of the concept of abuse of law,” concluded Judge Katarína Cangárová after returning from the seminar.

The seminar “The Never Ending Story of Tax Fraud”, organised by the Association of European Administrative Judges, was attended on 29 and 30 May 2025 by administrative court judges from selected EU Member States (Lithuania, Poland, Austria, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Slovakia), a criminal judge of the Supreme Court of Finland, a representative of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, and representatives of academia and the Lithuanian tax administration. They discussed tax fraud and abuse in the light of the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU and its application in the territory of the Member States of the EU. A wide space was devoted to discussion and mutual exchange of experience in decision-making activities concerning the deduction of VAT on the grounds of tax fraud or abuse of law. Topics included the court procedure in the case of accumulation of different grounds for non-recognition of tax deduction, problems related to ongoing criminal proceedings and final judgement concerning tax offences, the impact of the decision on non-recognition of the right to deduct VAT on the decision on the deductibility of tax expenses in relation to income tax.

“As tax fraud and abuse of law are institutes created by the case law of the CJEU and therefore applicable in all member states of the Union, I consider the expert contributions and mutual exchange of knowledge and experience of judges from other member states to be highly topical, inspiring and beneficial,” commented Katarína Cangárová on the seminar of the Association of European Administrative Judges.