In May 2004, enlargement of the European Community (EC) took place. EC law should have become applicable in new Member States at the moment of accession. However, numerous acts of the EC law were not published officially in languages of new Member States. Lack of proper publication has led to disputes (particularly in the field of customs law). During one of such disputes, questions were referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). In its judgment of 11 December 2007 in the case Skoma-Lux sro v. Celní ředitelství Olomouc (hereinafter ‘Skoma-Lux ’), the ECJ held:
Art. 58 of the Act of Accession precludes the obligations contained in Community legislation which has not been published in the Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union in the language of a new Member State, where that language is an official language of the European Union, from being imposed on individuals in that State, even though those persons could have learned of that legislation by other means.
The author analyzes the relevance of this judgment in tax matters.
Intertax