De BTW is ten slotte een objectieve beslasting en in dat systeem past het niet dat de hoedanigheid van de afnemer van invloed is op de verschuldigde BTW.
31 It is true that Wako could have remained a tenant and sub-let the property to CFI for a lower rent than that which it had to pay the landlord or that it could have paid compensation to the landlord so that the latter would accept early termination of the lease. In both cases, the economic impact would have been comparable to that of the transaction at issue in the main proceedings, without the parties concerned having to pay VAT.
32 However, that does not justify interpreting Article 13B(b) of the Sixth Directive so as to mean that it also applies to a supply of services that does not include the assignment of a right to occupy property.
33 An approach of that kind would be contrary to the VAT system's objectives of ensuring legal certainty and a correct and coherent application of the exemptions provided for in Article 13 of the Sixth Directive. The Court observes in that connection that, to facilitate the application of VAT, it is necessary to have regard, save in exceptional cases, to the objective character of the transaction in question (see Case C-4/94 BLP Group [1995] ECR I-983, paragraph 24). A taxable person who, for the purposes of achieving a particular economic goal, has a choice between exempt transactions and taxable transactions must therefore, in his own interest, duly take his decision while bearing in mind the neutral system of VAT (see, to that effect, BLP Group, cited above, paragraphs 25 and 26). The principle of the neutrality of VAT does not mean that a taxable person with a choice between two transactions may choose one of them and avail himself of the effects of the other.
Daar komt bij dat hoewel deze vrijstellingen ten goede komen aan activiteiten die op bepaalde doelstellingen zijn gericht, in de meeste bepalingen van artikel 13, A, van de Zesde richtlijn ook de marktdeelnemers worden vermeld die vrijgestelde handelingen mogen verrichten, zodat deze handelingen niet aan de hand van zuiver materiële of functionele begrippen worden omschreven (arrest van 11 juli 1985, Commissie/Duitsland, 107/84, Jurispr. blz. 2655, punt 13; arrest Stichting Uitvoering Financiële Acties, reeds aangehaald, punt 12, en arrest van 7 september 1999, Gregg, C-216/97, Jurispr. blz. I-4947, punt 13).
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