Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2003:23
Date: 2003-01-16
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Value added tax
Concepts: Value added tax
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary of the Judgment 
Tax provisions — Harmonisation of laws — Turnover taxes — Common system of 
value added tax — Exemptions provided for by the Sixth Directive — Exemption for the 
letting of immovable property — Definition — Letting of a pre-fabricated building sunk 
into the ground and intended to be dismantled and re-used elsewhere — Whether 
included — Whether it is the building and the land or the building alone which is made 
available to the lessee — Irrelevant 
(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 13B(b)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-315/00 
The letting of a building constructed from 
prefabricated components fixed to or in the 
ground in such a way that they cannot be 
easily dismantled or easily moved consti­
tutes a letting of immovable property for 
the purposes of Article 13B(b) of Sixth 
Council Directive 77/388 on the harmon­
isation of the laws of the Member States 
relating to turnover taxes, even if the 
building is to be removed at the end of 
the lease and re-used on another site. 
Whether the lessor makes available to the 
lessee both the building and the land on 
which it is erected or merely the building 
which he has erected on the lessee's land is 
irrelevant in determining whether a letting 
constitutes a letting of immovable property 
for the purposes of that provision, as such a 
letting may concern solely a building. 
(see paras 35, 40-41, operative part 1-2) 
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