Mootness of preliminary reference to the EU Court of Justice following settlement of underlying tax dispute

The Federal Court of Finance (BFH) ordered the revocation of its earlier decision referring a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) pursuant to Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, resulting in the dismissal of the reference on grounds of legal clarity. The dispute concerned a tax assessment by a family allowance office, which the taxpayer challenged after the court of first instance rendered a judgment in May 2005. The reference became moot when the tax authority complied with the taxpayer's claim through an amended assessment decision, leading the parties to declare the case settled in the main proceedings and rendering the underlying judgment without subject matter. The decisive legal basis for the revocation was the extinction of the underlying dispute and the necessity of maintaining legal clarity, as the specific question of EU law interpretation was no longer required for the resolution of the case.