1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 1
This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents
►B EIGHTHCOUNCILDIRECTIVE
of6December 1979
on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Arrange-
mentsfor the refundof value addedtax to taxable personsnotestablishedin the territory of the
country
(79/1072/EEC)
(OJ L 331, 27.12.1979, p. 11)
Amended by:
Official Journal
No page date
►A1Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal L 302 23 15.11.1985
►A2Act of Accession of Austria, Sweden and Finland C241 21 29.8.1994
(adapted by Council Decision 95/1/EC, Euratom, ECSC) L 1 1 1.1.1995
NB: This consolidated version contains references to the European unit of account and/or the ecu, which from 1 January 1999
should be understood as references to the euro — Council Regulation (EEC) No 3308/80 (OJ L 345, 20.12.1980, p. 1) andCouncil Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 (OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1).
▼B
EIGHTHCOUNCILDIRECTIVE
of6December 1979
on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to
turnover taxes — Arrangements for the refundof value addedtax
totaxablepersonsnotestablishedintheterritory ofthecountry
(79/1072/EEC)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community,
Having regard to Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977
on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turn-over taxes — Common system of value added tax (uniform basis of
assessment)(
1), and particular Article 17 (4) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(2),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(3),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee(4),
Whereas, pursuant to Article 17 (4) of Directive 77/388/EEC, the
Council is to adopt Community rules laying down the arrangementsgoverning refunds of value added tax, referred to in paragraph 3 of
the said Article, to taxable persons not established in the territory of
the country;
Whereas rules are required to ensure that a taxable person established
in the territory of one member country can claim for tax which hasbeen invoiced to him in respect of supplies of goods or services in
another Member State or which has been paid in respect of imports
into that other Member State, thereby avoiding double taxation;
Whereas discrepancies between the arrangements currently in force in
Member States, which give rise in some cases to deflection of tradeand distortion of competition, should be eliminated;
Whereas the introduction of Community rules in this field will mark
progress towards the effective liberalization of the movement ofpersons, goods and services, thereby helping to complete the processof economic integration;
Whereas such rules must not lead to the treatment of taxable persons
differing according to the Member State in the territory of which theyare established;
Whereas certain forms of tax evasion or avoidance should be
prevented;
Whereas, under Article 17 (4) of Directive 77/388/EEC, Member States
may refuse the refund or impose supplementary conditions in the caseof taxable persons not established in the territory of the Community;whereas steps should, however, also be taken to ensure that suchtaxable persons are not eligible for refunds on more favourable terms
than those provided for in respect of Community taxable persons;
Whereas, initially, only the Community arrangements contained in this
Directive should be adopted; whereas these arrangements provide, inparticular, that decisions in respect of applications for refund shouldbe notified within six months of the date on which such applications
were lodged; whereas refunds should be made within the same period;
whereas, for a period of one year from the final date laid down for theimplementation of these arrangements, the Italian Republic should be1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 2
(1) OJ No L 145, 13. 6. 1977, p. 1.
(2) OJ No C 26, 1. 2. 1978, p. 5.
(3) OJ No C 39, 12. 2. 1979, p. 14.
(4) OJ No C 269, 13. 11. 1978, p. 51.
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authorized to notify the decisions taken by its competent services with
regard to applications lodged by taxable persons not established withinits territory and to make the relevant refunds within nine months, in
order to enable the Italian Republic to reorganize the system at present
in operation, with a view to applying the Community system;
Whereas further arrangements will have to be adopted by the Council
to supplement the Community system; whereas, until the latter arrange-ments enter into force, Member States will refund the tax on the
services and the purchases of goods which are not covered by this
Directive, in accordance with the arrangements which they adoptpursuant to Article 17 (4) of Directive 77/388/EEC,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Article 1
For the purposes of this Directive, ‘a taxable person not established in
the territory of the country’ shall mean a person as referred to in
Article 4 (1) of Directive 77/388/EEC who, during the period referred
to in the first and second sentences of the first subparagraph of Article7 (1), has had in that country neither the seat of his economic activity,nor a fixed establishment from which business transactions areeffected, nor, if no such seat or fixed establishment exists, his domicileor normal place of residence, and who, during the same period, has
supplied no goods or services deemed to have been supplied in that
country, with the exception of:
(a) transport services and services ancillary thereto, exempted pursuant
to Article 14 (1) (i), Article 15 or Article 16 (1), B, C and D ofDirective 77/388/EEC;
(b) services provided in cases where tax is payable solely by the
person to whom they are supplied, pursuant to Article 21 (1) (b)of Directive 77/388/EEC.
Article 2
Each Member State shall refund to any taxable person who is not
established in the territory of the country but who is established in
another Member State, subject to the conditions laid down below, anyvalue added tax charged in respect of services or movable propertysupplied to him by other taxable persons in the territory of the countryor charged in respect of the importation of goods into the country, in so
far as such goods and services are used for the purposes of the transac-
tions referred to in Article 17 (3) (a) and (b) of Directive 77/388/EECand of the provision of services referred to in Article 1(b).
Article 3
To qualify for refund, any taxable person as referred to in Article 2
who supplies no goods or services deemed to be supplied in the terri-tory of the country shall:
(a) submit to the competent authority referred to in the first paragraph
of Article 9 an application modelled on the specimen contained inAnnex A, attaching originals of invoices or import documents.Member States shall make available to applicants an explanatorynotice which shall in any event contain the minimum informationset out in Annex C;
(b) produce evidence, in the form of a certificate issued by the official
authority of the State in which he is established, that he is a taxableperson for the purposes of value added tax in that State. However,
where the competent authority referred to in the first paragraph of
Article 9 already has such evidence in its possession, the taxableperson shall not be bound to produce new evidence for a periodof one year from the date of issue of the first certificate by the offi-cial authority of the State in which he is established. MemberStates shall not issue certificates to any taxable persons who benefit1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 3
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from tax exemption pursuant to Article 24 (2) of Directive 77/388/
EEC;
(c) certify by means of a written declaration that he has supplied no
goods or services deemed to have been supplied in the territory of
the country during the period referred to in the first and secondsentences of the first subparagraph of Article 7 (1);
(d) undertake to repay any sum collected in error.
Article 4
To be eligible for the refund, any taxable person as referred to in
Article 2 who has supplied in the territory of the country no goods or
services deemed to have been supplied in the country other than theservices referred to in Article 1 (a) and (b) shall:
(a) satisfy the requirements laid down in Article 3 (a), (b) and (d);
b) certify by means of a written declaration that, during the period
referred to in the first and second sentences of the first subpara-graph of Article 7 (1), he has supplied no goods or servicesdeemed to have been supplied in the territory of the country other
than services referred to in Article 1 (a) and (b).
Article 5
For the purposes of this Directive, goods and services in respect of
which tax may be refundable shall satisfy the conditions laid down inArticle 17 of Directive 77/388/EEC as applicable in the Member Stateof refund.
This Directive shall not apply to supplies of goods which are, or may
by, exempted under item 2 of Article 15 of Directive 77/388/EEC.
Article 6
Member States may not impose on the taxable persons referred to in
Article 2 any obligation, in addition to those referred to in Articles 3and 4, other than the obligation to provide, in specific cases, the infor-mation necessary to determine whether the application for refund isjustified.
Article 7
1. The application for refund provided for in Articles 3 and 4 shall
relate to invoiced purchases of goods or services or to imports madeduring a period of not less than three months or not more than onecalendar year. Applications may, however, relate to a period of lessthan three months where the period represents the remainder of acalendar year. Such applications may also relate to invoices or import
documents not covered by previous applications and concerning trans-
actions completed during the calendar year in question. Applicationsshall be submitted to the competent authority referred to in the firstparagraph of Article 9 within six months of the end of the calendaryear in which the tax became chargeable.
If the application relates to a period of less than one calendar year but
not less than three months, the amount for which application is mademay not be less than the equivalent in national currency of 200
European units of account; if the application relates to a period of a
calendar year or the remainder of a calendar year, the amount maynot be less than the equivalent in national currency of 25 Europeanunits of account.
2. The European unit of account used shall be that defined in the
Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977(
1), as determined on 1
January of the year of the period referred to in the first and secondsentences of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1. Member States1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 4
(1) OJ No L 356, 31. 12. 1977, p. 1.
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may round upor down, by upto 10 %, the figures resulting from this
conversion into national currency.
3. The competent authority referred to in the first paragraph of
Article 9 shall stamp each invoice and/or import document to preventtheir use for further application and shall return them within onemonth.
4. Decisions concerning applications for refund shall be announced
within six months of the date when the applications, accompanied byall the necessary documents required under this Directive for examina-
tion of the application, are submitted to the competent authority
referred to in paragraph 3. Refunds shall be made before the end ofthe abovementioned period, at the applicant's request, in either theMember State of refund or the State in which he is established. In thelatter case, the bank charges for the transfer shall be payable by theapplicant.
The grounds for refusal of an application shall be stated. Appeals
against such refusals may be made to the competent authorities in theMember State concerned, subject to the same conditions as to form and
time limits as those governing claims for refunds made by taxable
persons established in the same State.
5. Where a refund has been obtained in a fraudulent or in any other
irregular manner, the competent authority referred to in paragraph 3
shall proceed directly to recover the amounts wrongly paid and any
penalties imposed, in accordance with the procedure applicable in theMember State concerned, without prejudice to the provisions relatingto mutual assistance in the recovery of value added tax.
In the case of fraudulent applications which cannot be made the subject
of an administrative penalty, in accordance with national legislation,the Member State concerned may refuse for a maximum period oftwo years from the date on which the fraudulent application was
submitted any further refund to the taxable person concerned. Where
an administrative penalty has been imposed but has not been paid, theMember State concerned may suspend any further refund to the taxableperson concerned until it has been paid.
Article 8
In the case of taxable persons not established in the territory of the
Community, Member States may refuse refunds or impose specialconditions.
Refunds may not be granted on terms more favourable than those
applied in respect of taxable persons established in the territory of theCommunity.
Article 9
Member States shall make known, in an appropriate manner, the
competent authority to which the application referred to in Article 3
(a) and in Article 4 (a) are to be submitted.
The certificates referred to in Article 3 (b) and in Article 4 (a), estab-
lishing that the person concerned is a taxable person, shall be modelled
on the specimens contained in Annex B.
Article 10
Member States shall bring into force the provisions necessary to
comply with this Directive no later than 1 January 1981. This Directiveshall apply only to applications for refunds concerning value added taxcharged on invoiced purchases of goods or services or in imports madeas from that date.
Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the
main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field coveredby this Directive. The Commission shall inform the other MemberStates thereof.1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 5
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Article 11
By away of derogation from Article 7 (4), the Italian Republic may,
until 1 January 1982, extend the period referred to in this paragraph
from six to nine months.
Article 12
Three years after the date referred to in Article 10, the Commission
shall, after consulting the Member States, submit a report to the
Council on the application of this Directive, and in particular Articles3, 4 and 7 thereof.
Article 13
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 6
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ANNEX A
SPECIMEN
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1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 8
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ANNEX B
SPECIMEN
CERTIFICATEOFSTATUSOFTAXABLEPERSON
1979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 9
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ANNEX C
Minimuminformationtobegiveninexplanatorynotes
►(1)A21979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 10
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►(1)A21979L1072 — EN — 01.01.1995 — 002.001 — 11