The “Broken” Fixed Establishment Concept

The fight to balance national budgets in the European Union has seen more aggressive interpretations of the VAT legislation by national tax authorities. The existence of the “fixed establishment” is an easy fight to pick. Given the unwillingness of the European Commission to provide substantive guidance, interpretation of the FE concept has been left to the ECJ. The author in this article examines the angle whereby the human and technical resources used by one group company in supplying services to another group company, are considered by tax authorities to constitute the FE of that latter company. In doing so, the author analyses the latest case from the ECJ and explains why the judgment should definitively close the door to such practices.