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Recent ECJ decisions and opinions

Graphic Procede (Taxation) [2010] EUECJ C-88/09

Taxation – Sixth VAT Directive – reprographics activities – concepts of ‘supply of goods’ and ‘supply of services’ – distinguishing criteria

The Court ruled:

Article 5(1) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment must be interpreted as meaning that reprographics activities have the characteristics of a supply of goods to the extent that they are limited to mere reproduction of documents on materials, where the right to dispose of them has been transferred from the reprographer to the customer who ordered the copies of the original. Such activities must be classified however as a ‘supply of services’, within the meaning of Article 6(1) of Sixth Directive 77/388, where it is clear that they involve additional services liable, having regard to the importance of those services for the recipient, the time necessary to perform them, the processing required by the original documents and the proportion of the total cost that those services represent, to be predominant in relation to the supply of goods, such that they constitute an aim in themselves for the recipient thereof.

http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2010/C8809.html

X Holding (Taxation) [2010] EUECJ C-33/09_O and C-538/08_O

VAT – Article 11(4) of the Second Directive – Article 6(2) and Article 17(2) and (6) of the Sixth Directive – right to deduct input tax – exclusions by national rules prior to the Sixth Directive – amendment of the rules after the entry into force of the Sixth Directive – use of goods and services for the private purposes of the taxable person

The Advocate General proposed the following reply be given in answer to the questions referred by the Dutch authorities:

'(1) Article 11(4) of Second Council Directive 67/228/EEC of 11 April 1967 on the harmonisation of legislation of Member States concerning turnover taxes Structure and procedures for application of the common system of value added tax, and Article 17(6) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment, are to be interpreted as meaning that a Member State which has made use of the possibility offered by those articles of excluding deduction in respect of categories of expenditure described as: 'providing the staff of the employer with the opportunity for private transport',

'the provision of food and drink to the staff of the employer',

'the provision of accommodation for the staff of the employer',

has satisfied the condition requiring the designation of a category of adequately defined goods and/or services, by reference, even implicitly, to the nature of those goods and/or services.

On the other hand, the exclusion, by the Member State, of the right to deduct input VAT in respect of categories of expenditure described as:

'providing the staff of the employer with opportunities for recreation',

' [giving] business gifts or other gifts ... to persons in relation to whom, if they had been charged or were to be charged the relevant turnover tax, such tax would be entirely or mainly non-deductible',

does not satisfy that condition.

(2) Article 17(6) of the Sixth Directive is to be interpreted as meaning that it allows a Member State to retain a partial exclusion from the right to deduct input VAT in respect of expenditure relating to certain goods or services, introduced by national legislation enacted before the entry into force of the Sixth Directive.

(3) Article 17(6) of the Sixth Directive is to be interpreted as meaning that it allows Member States to introduce, after the entry into force of the directive, an amendment to the exclusion from the right to deduct VAT on a category of expenditure, such as that relating, in the main proceedings in Case C-33/09, to the provision of food and drink by the taxable person to members of his staff, which is intended, in principle, to restrict the scope of the exclusion but where it cannot be ruled out that, in an individual case in a particular year which is not relevant to the main proceedings, it might extend the scope of the exclusion through the flat-rate nature of the amended provision.'

http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2010/C3309_O.html

Eulitz (Taxation) [2010] EUECJ C-473/08

Sixth VAT Directive – Article 13A(1)(j) – Exemption – Tuition given privately by teachers and covering school or university education – Services provided by an independent teacher in the context of continuing professional training courses organised by a separate entity

The Court ruled:

  • Article 13A(1)(j) of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment must be interpreted as meaning that teaching work which a graduate engineer performs at an education institute established as a private-law association for participants in advanced training courses – culminating in an examination – who already have at least a university or higher technical college qualification as an architect or an engineer or who have an equivalent education can constitute ‘tuition … covering school or university education’ within the meaning of that provision. Activities other than teaching in the strict sense can also constitute such tuition, provided that they are carried out, essentially, in the context of the transfer of knowledge and skills between a teacher and pupils or students and cover school or university education. It is for the referring court, if need be, to ascertain whether all the activities at issue in the main proceedings are ‘tuition’ covering ‘school or university education’ within the meaning of that provision.
  • Article 13A(1)(j) of that directive must be interpreted as meaning that, in circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings, a person such as Mr Eulitz, a partner in the claimant in the main proceedings, who performs teaching work for training courses offered by another body, cannot be regarded as having given tuition ‘privately’ within the meaning of that provision.
  • http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2010/C47308.html