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A taxing story

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03 June 2010 / Tony Child
Issue: 7420 / Categories: Features , Tax , Human rights , Commercial
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Tony Child relates the story behind Olafsson v Iceland, the first successful challenge to national taxation

In a landmark ruling at the end of April the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that national taxation (the Icelandic “Industry Charge”) was unlawful as being contrary to Art 11 of the European Convention on Rights (the Convention) (freedom of assembly and association). The case—Olafsson v Iceland—is believed to be the first successful challenge to national taxation, and the judgment has implications for the so called negative rights conferred by Art 11 and, by analogy, Arts 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and 10 (freedom of expression).

The applicant, Vorour Olafsson, is an employer in the building sector and a member of the Master Builders Association (MBA). He asserted that a statutory obligation under the (Icelandic) Industry Charge Act 1993 to pay the industry charge which was collected by the government—but then passed to the Federation of Icelandic Industries (FII)—was unlawful.

Olaffson’s challenge relied on Arts 9, 10, 11 and 14

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