3.5. Company car used by an employee or an administrator
A vehicle is increasingly becoming part of the "salary package" or the financial treatment of cross-border workers or self-employed persons and situations where a person is employed or works for a company established in a Member State other than that of his residence are frequent. The Court has been called upon in a number of cases to scrutinise the effects and the compatibility with the free movement of workers and the freedom of establishment of registration taxes in situations where the worker or the self-employed use a vehicle made available to him by his employer[44].
The Court considered that the legislation and administrative practice of a Member State restricts the free movement for workers and breaches EU law in so far as they allow employees resident in that Member State and employed in another Member State to use a company vehicle registered in that other Member State only subject to the condition that a tax is paid for that purpose, where the vehicle is neither intended to be essentially used on a permanent basis in the Member State of residence of the employee, nor is actually so used[45].
A similar hindrance arose where the vehicles were put at the disposal of persons holding the function of administrators of companies established in another Member State[46].
The Court has also clarified that it is for the national judge to assess in which way the vehicle has been used and that when a company vehicle is not used permanently or intended to be used in that way in the Member State of residence of the user, the obligation to register is not justified if the self-employed worker may additionally use the company vehicle for private purposes[47].
