Progress in the Revision of Inheritance and Gift Tax under the European Union Law: Judgement of the EU Court of Justice (Seventh Chamber), 26 May 2016, Commission v Greece (C-244/15, CLI:EU:C:2016:359)

Judgements by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on inheritance tax are relatively new. In fact, the EU until recently had no standard regulations on direct taxation and much less so on Inheritance and Gift Tax (IGT). In the absence of such regulations, IGT is a responsibility of individual EU Member States. All Member States shall, however, ensure to exercise the fundamental freedoms laid down by the EU legislation. This means that all Member States shall not draw a distinction between taxpayers on the basis of their nationality and should not restrict the fundamental freedoms arbitrarily. The CJEU confirmed that taxation on gifts and inheritances is subject to these freedoms. Nevertheless, the CJEU also declared that EU Member States are not liable to eliminate double taxation occurring as a result of their tax sovereignty. The few number of Double Taxation Agreements on IGT makes the problem even more evident.