Activites

• 2000/10/21 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Directive 2000/65
  • OJ L 269 21.10.2000, p. 0044
• #2297
• 2000/10/17 Council Meeting
• 2000/10/17 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2000/10/17 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• 1999/04/13 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T4-0252/1999 summary

    Under consultation procedure, the European Parliament adopted the legislative resolution by Lyndon H.A. Harrison (PSE,UK), which approves the Commission's proposal for a Council directive amending Directive 77/388/EEC as regards the determination of the person liable for payment of value added tax, subject to amendments in the following areas: - requiring that those Member States who use the reverse charge system (designation of the recipient as the person liable for payment of the tax) be allowed to continue to do so; - stressing that this proposal should be considered as a temporary measure before the introduction of the definitive VAT system; - advocating further limited exemptions to avoid the considerable administrative burden involved in the compulsory registration of numerous SMEs; - noting that the VAT problems faced by NGOs have yet to be resolved; - suggesting that non-established enterprises should not be obliged by Member Statesto provide a bank guarantee to be physically lodged in a bank of another Member State where the contract is made and enacted; - requiring that tax liability may only be transferred to the recipient of goods installed when the supplier established abroad does not claim, in the normal assessment procedure laid out in the directive, that tax was prepaid in the country in which the goods were installed; - requiring the Commission to communicate to the European Parliament and the Council before 01/01/2000 a strategy and timetable for all forthcoming proposals in the field of value added tax, and to review this strategy (as well as the effectiveness of the current proposal in reducing the administrative burden on business) and communicate it to the Council and the European Parliament every year until the introduction of the definitive system.�

• 1999/04/12 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 1999/03/30 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0174/1999
• 1999/01/11 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1998/11/27 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(1998)0660 summary

    PURPOSE: to amend Directive 77/338/EEC as regards the determination of the person liable for payment of value added tax with a view to simplifying tax obligations for traders engaged in intra-Community economic activities in several Member States. CONTENT: this proposal forms part of the exercise of simplifying and modernising the common system of VAT (SLIM) now being undertaken by the Commission, which should pave the way for the introduction of a new common system of VAT based on the principle of a single place of taxation. In order to allay traders' concerns, expressed during the SLIM exercise, while continuing to observe the principle of fractioned payments which is one of the cornerstones of the common system of VAT, the present proposal for a directive supports the idea that there should be only one person liable for payment per type of transaction, irrespective of the Member State in which that transaction was carried out. It is stated as a general principle that the taxable person who carries out the taxable transaction must be the person liable for payment of the tax, whether or not that taxable person is established within the territory of the country. The fact that the recipient of the goods or the purchaser of the service can no longer be designated as the person liable for payment of the tax meets the concern that the "reverse charge" system, which runs counter to the principle of fractioned payments, should not be developed. The person for whom a triangular transaction is destined (Article 28c(E)(3)), the customer for a service (Article 9(2)(e)) and the customer, identified for tax purposes within the territory of the country (Article 28b(C), (D), (E) and (F)) nevertheless remain persons liable for payment of the tax. These are exceptions, limited to the definition of the taxable person as the person liable for payment of the tax, which are obligatory for the Member States. Member States also still have the option of designating a person other than the person liable for payment of the tax as jointly and severally liable for payment of the tax. The only change is a statement to the effect that this option must not give rise to provisions which create a disadvantage specifically for non-established taxable persons. The principle that the non-established taxable person must be the person liable for payment of the tax will clearly not prevet him (or the established taxable person) from apponiting an agent responsible for complying with obligations laid down by the 6th Directive in his place if he is unable to do so himself because of linguisitic, administrative or organisational barriers. For the sake of transparency, he must inform the administration of the agent's name and the taxable person is responsible for the agent's actions vis-à-vis the administration. It should also be pointed out that the Member State retains the option to designate a tax representative as the person liable for payment of the tax in place of the non-established taxable person.�

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(1998)0660
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0174/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0252/1999
• : Directive 2000/65
• : OJ L 269 21.10.2000, p. 0044

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)