European Union – Value added tax. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling, deciding, amongst other things, that art 168 of Council Directive (EC) 2006/112 (on the common system of value added tax), as amended, had to be interpreted as meaning that, where the exemption from VAT provided for by national law was incompatible with the VAT Directive, art 168 did not permit a taxable person both to benefit from that exemption and to exercise the right to deduct.