3.

I shall now consider the questions submitted to the Court by the Østre Landsret. The national court asks in the first place whether the Sixth Directive, and in particular Articles 10, 22 and 23 thereof, must “interpreted in such a way that the directive precludes a Member State from laying down accounting periods and periods within which payment must be made in respect of value-added tax chargeable on the importation of goods from another Member State ... which are in conformity with the periods prescribed by Article 22 (4) of the directive but which mean that registered importers obtain a shorter average period of credit for making payment of that tax to the revenue authorities than the average period of credit which the same Member State generally permits registered undertakings, including importers, in respect of payment to the revenue authorities of the net amount of value-added tax on the general turnover (net tax liability)”. I shall examine the provisions to which the Danish court refers. After defining the terms “chargeable event” and “chargeability of tax”, Article 10 distinguishes the times when they occur according to whether the tax is charged on internal transactions or on imports. In the case of imports, the chargeable event occurs and the tax becomes chargeable when the goods are brought into the country. In the case of internal transactions, the chargeable event occurs and the tax becomes chargeable when the goods are delivered or the services are performed. If they involve successive statements of account or payments, the transactions are deemed to have been completed upon the expiry of the periods to which such statements of account or payments pertain. Articles 22 to 24 relate to the taxable person's obligations and they too make a distinction between internal VAT and VAT on imports. For internal trade, Article 22 (4) provides that every taxable person is to submit a return within a period to be determined by each Member State; however, the period must not end later than two months after the end of each tax period. The tax period may be fixed at one month, two months, a quarter or longer periods not exceeding a year. Paragraph (5) goes on to provide that: “Every taxable person shall pay the net amount of the value-added tax when submitting the return;” Member States may however “fix a different date for the payment of the amount or may demand an interim payment”. As regards VAT on imports, Article 23 provides that “the detailed rules for the making of the declaration and payments” are to be laid down by the Member States; it authorizes the Member States to “provide that the value-added tax payable on importation of goods by taxable persons or persons liable to tax ... need not be paid at the time of importation”, provided that the tax “is indicated as such in a return to be submitted under Article 22 (4)”. These rules appear to me to be absolutely clear. In the case of the internal system, the directive identifies three phases for the discharge of the obligations incumbent upon taxable persons. The first is the tax period, and the obligation which is imposed upon the Member States in connection with that period concerns its maximum duration: it may not exceed one year. The second phase is the period within which the return is to be made and here also Member States may not go beyond a certain limit: the return is to be made within the two months following the end of the tax period. The third phase is the period within which the net liability must be discharged or the periodical payments must be made, and as a rule the end of that period must coincide with the submission of the return. However, Member States retain the power to extend the period and the directive does not even limit the time for which they may allow payment to be deferred in such a case. With respect to tax on imports, on the other hand, the basic principle is that the VAT is to be paid when the goods are imported. However, if the Member States exercise their right to prescribe a different date for payment, the VAT is to be mentioned “in a return to be submitted under Article 22 (4)”, that is to say in accordance with the rules laid down for the internal system. Thus, the directive leaves the Member States a wide margin of discretion regarding the phasing of the obligations attaching to taxable persons. In particular, none of its provisions requires the time-limits for returns and payments in full or interim payments to be the same for internal tax as for tax on imports. Moreover, the reference in Article 23 to Article 22 (4) does nothing to change that facts. It seems to me to be obvious that that reference relates not to the abovementioned time-limits (which are governed by Article 22 (5) in any case), but only to the manner in which the returns are to be drawn up. That aspect is in fact dealt with in the second subparagraph of Article 24 (2).