The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered judgment on Case C-786/19 (The North of England P & I Association Ltd v Bundeszentralamt für Steuern). This corresponds to a request for a preliminary ruling from the Finanzgericht Köln (Finance Court, Cologne, Germany).
The CJEU held that “where insurance contracts concern the provision of cover for various risks linked to the operation of sea-going vessels which are entered in the shipping register maintained by a Member State but which fly the flag of another Member State or of a third State under a temporary flagging-out authorisation, the State that must be considered to be the ‘Member State of registration’ of the ship concerned and therefore, to be ‘the Member State where the risk is situated’, within the meaning of those provisions, holding the exclusive power to tax premiums paid with respect to those insurance contracts, is the Member State which maintains the shipping register in which the primary purpose of entering that ship is to prove ownership of that ship”.
The judgement (15 April 2021) may be found here and the Opinion of the Advocate General (27 January 2021) is available here.
De Maribus 