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Supreme Court, on appeal from the High Court by way of case stated from the Circuit Court on appeal from the Appeal Commissioners, determines: (a) that if answers from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in response to a preliminary reference were unclear, it was open to the Irish courts to seek further clarity by way of a second reference; (b) in the instant case, the ruling of the CJEU was sufficiently clear concerning whether the 'abuse doctrine' could apply to a VAT transaction that predated a 2006 ruling from the CJEU; (c) the ruling of the High Court in the instant case was correct that the lease of property and leaseback arrangement concerned had no commercial reality, and constituted an abusive practice in relation to value-added tax.
Clarke CJ (nem diss): Value added tax - EU law dimension to VAT legislation - reference to CJEU - abusive practices - transactions pre-dating particular decision of the CJEU in 2006 - whether answers of CJEU to preliminary reference were unclear - whether principle of abuse of rights was directly effective against an individual in the absence of a national measure - whether EU law could be relied upon for abusive or fraudulent ends - whether to make a further reference to the CJEU - jurisdiction to make a second reference - whether judgment of CJEU was sufficiently clear - whether any doubt about the correctness of the CJEU's judgment - background to appeal - appeal to Appeal Commissioners, thence to Circuit Court, thence to High Court by way of case stated, thence to Supreme Court - jurisdiction of Supreme Court -
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