Taxation

The Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities made a clear distinction between income of national origin which fell within the authority of the national tax administrations of the member states, on the one hand, and income paid by the EU to its officials and other staff, which was exclusively subject to the law of the EU as regards its taxation, on the other. That division of reciprocal fiscal jurisdiction should exclude any taxation, direct or indirect, of income which was not within the jurisdiction of the member states.

As previously held by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Art 13 of the Protocol prohibited the member states from imposing on an official or staff member of the EU any taxation whatsoever which was based in whole or in part on the payment of the salary to that official or staff member by the EU.