Case C‑574/15 of 2 May 2018 (Mauro Scialdone)
National law providing for criminal penalties relating to failure to pay withholding tax and VAT by the legal deadline — Higher financial threshold applicable to VAT related offences — National law providing for the extinction of criminal liability if VAT is paid
Source: Curia
Facts:
The Italian company Siderlaghi Srl had to pay its VAT for the financial year of 2012, but it did so too late. The company director, Mr. Scialdone had to pay a fine and was prosecuted for a criminal offence.
Meanwhile, Italy increased the thresholds above which failure to pay the tax constituted a criminal offence. Under these new rules, Mr.Scialdone would no longer have committed a crime, whereas the old rules would still give rise to a criminal conviction.
The question is if Italy was allowed to increase the threshold required to make unpaid VAT a potential criminal offense, even though for withholding taxes a lower amount was needed to trigger prosecution. According to the ECJ, this is allowed.
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