Keywords

Summary



Keywords

1. Customs union – Extinction of the customs debt – Goods seized on their unlawful introduction and simultaneously or subsequently confiscated – Concept – Goods held on their introduction into the customs territory of the Community and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed – Included

(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Art. 233(1)(d))

2. Tax provisions – Harmonisation of laws – Excise duties – Directive 92/12 – Goods seized on their introduction into the territory of the Community and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed – No occurrence of the chargeable event for excise duty – Goods seized after their unlawful introduction and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed – Occurrence of the chargeable event for excise duty and chargeability of the excise duty

(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Arts 84(1)(a) and 98; Commission Regulation No 2454/93, Art. 867 bis; Council Directive 92/12, Arts 5(1)(3) and (2)(1) and 6(1)(c))

3. Tax provisions – Harmonisation of laws – Turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax – Import tax – Goods seized on their introduction into the territory of the Community and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed – No occurrence of the chargeable event for tax – Goods seized after their unlawful introduction and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed – Occurrence of the chargeable event for tax and chargeability of the tax

(Council Regulation No 2454/93, Art. 867 bis; Council Directive 77/388, Arts 2, point 2, 7, 10(3)(2) and 16(1), title B(c))

4. Customs union – Customs debt – Value added tax – Excise duties – Directive 92/12 – Member State competent for recovery

(Council Regulation No 2913/92, Arts 202, 215(1) and (3), and 217; Council Directives 77/388, Arts 7(2) and 10(3), and 92/12, Arts 6(1) and 7(1))

Summary

1. A situation in which goods that are detained by the local customs and tax authorities when introduced into the customs territory of the Community in the area in which the first customs office is situated at the external border of the Community, and are simultaneously or subsequently destroyed by those authorities, without having left their possession, is covered by the concept of goods ‘seized and simultaneously or subsequently confiscated’ in point (d) of the first paragraph of Article 233 of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, as amended by Regulation No 955/1999, with the result that the customs debt is extinguished pursuant to that provision.

(see para. 66, operative part 1)

2. The third subparagraph of Article 5(1) and Article 6(1) of Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, as amended by Directive 96/99, must be interpreted as meaning that goods seized by the local customs and tax authorities on their introduction into the territory of the Community and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed by those authorities, without having left their possession, must be regarded as not having been imported into the Community, with the result that the chargeable event for excise duty on them does not occur. When goods are seized after their unlawful introduction into that territory, namely once they have gone beyond the area in which the first customs office inside that territory is situated, and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed by those authorities, without having left their possession, the excise duty on them is not to be deemed ‘to have been placed under a suspension arrangement’ for the purposes of the first subparagraph of Article 5(2) and Article 6(1)(c) of that directive, read in conjunction with Articles 84(1)(a) and 98 of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, as amended by Regulation No 955/1999, and Article 867a of Regulation No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of Regulation No 2913/92, as amended by Regulation No 1662/1999 with the result that the chargeable event for excise duty on those goods occurs and, consequently, the excise duty on them becomes chargeable.

(see para. 86, operative part 2)

3. Articles 2(2), 7 and 10(3) of Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, as amended by Directive 1999/85, must be interpreted as meaning that goods seized by the local customs and tax authorities on their introduction into the territory of the Community and simultaneously or subsequently destroyed by those authorities, without having left their possession, must be regarded as not having been imported into the Community, with the result that the chargeable event for value added tax on them does not occur and, consequently, that tax does not become chargeable. However, the second subparagraph of Article 10(3) in conjunction with Article 16(1)(B)(c) of the Sixth Directive and Article 867a of Regulation No 2454/93 laying down provisions for the implementation of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community customs code, as amended by Regulation No 1662/1999, must be interpreted as meaning that, for goods which are seized by those authorities after their unlawful introduction into that territory, namely once they have gone beyond the area in which the first customs office inside that territory is situated, and are simultaneously or subsequently destroyed by those authorities, without having left their possession, the chargeable event for value added tax occurs and that tax is chargeable, even if those goods are subsequently placed under a customs warehousing procedure.

(see para. 99, operative part 3)

4. Articles 202, 215(1) and (3), and 217 of Regulation No 2913/92 establishing the Community customs code, as amended by Regulation No 955/1999, and Articles 7(2) and 10(3) of Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, as amended by Directive 1999/85, must be interpreted as meaning that it is the authorities in the Member State situated at the external border of the Community at which the goods were unlawfully introduced into the customs territory of the Community that are competent to recover the customs debt and the value added tax, even if those goods were then transported to another Member State where they were discovered then seized. Articles 6(1) and 7(1) of Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, as amended by Directive 96/99, must be interpreted as meaning that the authorities in that latter Member State are competent to recover the excise duty, provided that those goods are held for commercial purposes. It is for the national court to determine whether that condition is satisfied in the dispute before it.

(see para. 116, operative part 4)