European Union – Value added tax. Council Directive (EC) 2006/112, in particular art 168 thereof, had to be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, pursuant to which the compulsory removal from the VAT register of a company whose dissolution had been ordered by court decision resulted in, even where that company continued to carry out economic transactions whilst being placed under liquidation, in the obligation to calculate the input VAT due or paid on the available assets on the date of that dissolution and to pay it to the state and which, therefore, made the right to deduct subject to compliance with that obligation. The Court of Justice of the European Union so held in a preliminary ruling in proceedings concerning the decision to remove the taxpayer company from the Bulgarian VAT register.