2004/514/EC:Council Decision of 14 June 2004 amending Decision 98/161/EC authorising the Kingdom of the Netherlands to apply a measure derogating from Articles 2 and 28a(1) of the Sixth Directive 77/388/EEC on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes
Date: 2004-06-14
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Netherlands, VAT, approximation of laws, derogation from EU law, waste recycling

19.6.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 219/11

II

(Acts whose publication is not obligatory)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL DECISION

of 14 June 2004

amending Decision 98/161/EC authorising the Kingdom of the Netherlands to apply a measure
derogating from Articles 2 and 28a(1) of the Sixth Directive 77/388/EEC on the harmonisation
of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes

(2004/514/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community,

establishing the European

Having regard to the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of
17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of
the
Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system
of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment (1), and in
particular Article 27 thereof,

the laws of

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Pursuant to Article 27(1) of Directive 77/388/EEC, the
from the
Council, acting unanimously on a proposal
Commission, may authorise
to
introduce or extend special measures for derogation
from that Directive in order to simplify the procedure
for charging the tax or to prevent certain types of tax
evasion or avoidance.

any Member State

By letter registered with the Secretariat-General of the
Commission on 26 November 2003,
the Dutch
extension of Decision
requested
Government
98/161/EC (2)
tax
to apply
authorising
measures to the recyclable waste sector.

the
it

special

The other Member States were informed of the request
on 14 January 2004.

Decision 98/161/EC, authorised the Kingdom of
Netherlands to apply, until 31 December 2003,
following measures:

the
the

(1) OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1. Directive as

last amended by
Commission Regulation (EC) No 290/2004 (OJ L 50, 20.2.2004,
p. 5).

(2) OJ L 53, 24.2.1998, p. 19. Decision as amended by Decision

2000/435/EC (OJ L 172, 12.7.2000, p. 24).

— an exemption for the supply and intracommunity
acquisition of used and waste materials by firms
than NLG 2,5
with an annual
For
million.
that
calculating
turnover in non-ferrous metals may be
threshold,
disregarded,

turnover of
the purposes of

less

— an exemption for the supply and intracommunity

acquisition of non-ferrous metals.

Taxable entities carrying out
transactions which are
exempt pursuant
to Articles 2 and 3 of Decision
to make supplies
98/161/EC may be authorised not
and intra-Community acquisitions of used and waste
materials
special
measures provided for by that Decision.

effected by them subject

to the

The derogating measure was needed because of
the
difficulty in dealing with fraud in this sector, where
certain operators, mainly small dealers, did not comply
with their obligations under Article 21(1)(a) of Directive
77/388/EEC to pay to the authorities the tax they had
charged for their supplies. Enforcing collection of the tax
in this sector is especially difficult because of the compli-
cations of identifying and supervising the activities of
non-compliant
arrangements
traders. Hence
constitute an effective fraud-prevention measure.

these

On 7 June 2000, the Commission published a strategy to
improve the operation of the VAT system in the short
in which it undertook to rationalise the large
term,
In some
number of derogations currently in force.
cases,
involve
rationalisation could
extending certain particularly effective derogations to all
Member States. The Commission's communication of
20 October 2003 reiterates this compromise.

however,

this

The Kingdom of the Netherlands should be granted an
extension for the current derogation until the date of
entry into force of a special scheme for the application
of VAT to the recycled waste sector, but not later than
31 December 2005.

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

L 219/12

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

19.6.2004

(9)

The derogation has no adverse impact on the Commu-
nities' own resources accruing from VAT, nor does it
have an effect on the amount of VAT charged at the
final stage.

(10)

In order to ensure legal continuity, this Decision should
apply as from 1 January 2004,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

In Article 1 of Decision 98/161/EC, the date ‘31 December
‘until the
2003’ shall be replaced by the following wording:
date of entry into force of a special scheme for the application

of VAT to the recycled waste sector amending Directive
77/388/EEC, but not later than 31 December 2005’.

Article 2

This Decision shall apply as from 1 January 2004.

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Done at Luxembourg, 14 June 2004.

For the Council
The President

B. COWEN