WRITTEN QUESTION P-2834/02 by Karin Riis-Jørgensen (ELDR) to the Commission. VAT refunds.
Date: 2002-10-02
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: VAT, administrative formalities, business management, drafting of EU law, tax harmonisation, tax rebate

C 161 E/42

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

10.7.2003

(2003/C 161 E/044)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2834/02

by Karin Riis-Jørgensen (ELDR) to the Commission

(2 October 2002)

Subject: VAT refunds

Pursuant to the eighth VAT Directive, VAT refunds were scheduled to have been abolished several years
ago, with VAT being incorporated into the sixth EEC Directive. VAT-registered companies could then
deduct EU VAT in their own regular domestic VAT declarations. The EU Member States would
subsequently clear the VAT debt between the various countries.

The proposal that a European VAT-refund system be created was never adopted. That resulted in major
bureaucratic problems for European companies.

Have any measures been taken to ease the burden for companies as regards VAT refunds? What
alternatives does the Commission see to a European VAT-refund system?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(6 November 2002)

The Honourable Member refers to the proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 77/388/EEC as
regards the rules governing the right to deduct value added tax (1), submitted by the Commission in June
1998, aiming to replace the refund procedure laid down in the Eighth VAT Directive (2) with the right for
taxable persons to recover VAT directly in the regular VAT declarations they make in their Member State
of establishment. The latter would then recover the amount from the Member State in which the tax was
due by means of a refund system between the Member States.

Despite the full support of
Committee, it has not yet been possible to obtain the Council’s unanimous agreement on the proposal.

traders and the approval of Parliament and the Economic and Social

This is mainly due to the fact that the Council took some time to discuss the matter because other issues
were considered more important.

However, at the Ecofin Council on 4 June 2002 the Council Presidency signalled its intention to re-open
the discussion. The Danish Presidency honoured this undertaking and made considerable efforts to reach a
compromise acceptable to all the Member States.

The Commission remains convinced that the proposal represents the only way to achieve a major
simplification for traders, who could recover the VAT paid in another Member State in the same way as
national VAT.

(1) OJ C 219, 15.7.1998.
(2) Council Directive 79/1072/EEC of 6 December 1979 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States
relating to turnover taxes (cid:1) Arrangements for the refund of value added tax to taxable persons not established in
the territory of the country, OJ L 331, 27.12.1979.

(2003/C 161 E/045)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2844/02

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(9 October 2002)

Subject: Use of European public money in Kosovo

More than three years after the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo began and
despite the investment of EUR 400 million in the energy sector, electricity supply in Kosovo remains very
irregular, with, for example, an average supply of only about ten hours a day.