Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:129
Date: 2001-03-06
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Value added tax
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laius — Turnover taxes — Common system of 
value added tax — Taxable amount — Supply of goods — Consideration may consist 
of a supply of services — Condition — Supply of services directly linked to the delivery 
which can be expressed in monetary terms — Supply of bonuses in kind for the 
introduction of new customers — Purchase price and delivery costs of the bonuses paid 
by the supplier 
(Council Directive 77/388, Art. HA(l)(a)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-380/99 
The consideration for a supply of goods 
may consist of a supply of services and so 
constitute the taxable amount within the 
meaning of Article HA(l)(a) of the Sixth 
Directive 77/388, if there is a direct link 
between the supply of goods and the supply 
of services and if the value of those services 
can be expressed in monetary terms. That 
value, which is a subjective value and not a 
value estimated according to objective 
standards, must be the value which the 
recipient of the supply of services attributes 
to the services which he seeks to obtain and 
correspond to the amount which he is 
prepared to spend to that end. All the 
expenses borne by the recipient to obtain 
the supply in question, including the costs 
of incidental services which are connected 
to the supply of the goods, make up the 
value of the supply of services. 
Therefore, under Article HA(l)(a), the 
taxable amount for the supply to a recipi­
ent of a bonus in kind constituting con­
sideration for the introduction of a new 
customer includes, besides the purchase 
price of that bonus, the costs of delivery, 
when they are paid by the supplier of the 
bonus. 
(see paras. 17, 22-25 and operative part) 
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