Case C-189/11: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 26 September 2013 — European Commission v Kingdom of Spain (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Taxation — VAT — Directive 2006/112/EC — Articles 306 to 310 — Special scheme for travel agents — Discrepancies between language versions — National legislation providing for the application of the special scheme to persons other than travellers — Concepts of ‘traveller’ and ‘customer’ — Exclusion from the special scheme of certain sales to the public — Mention in the invoice of an amount of deductible VAT not related to the input tax due or paid — Overall determination of the taxable amount for a given period — Not compatible)
Date: 2013-09-26
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU law - national law, Spain, VAT, basis of tax assessment, infringement of EU law, invoicing, tax relief, tax system, travel agency, traveller








C_2013344EN.01000401.xml










23.11.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 344/4





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 26 September 2013 — European Commission v Kingdom of Spain
(Case C-189/11) (1)

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Taxation - VAT - Directive 2006/112/EC - Articles 306 to 310 - Special scheme for travel agents - Discrepancies between language versions - National legislation providing for the application of the special scheme to persons other than travellers - Concepts of ‘traveller’ and ‘customer’ - Exclusion from the special scheme of certain sales to the public - Mention in the invoice of an amount of deductible VAT not related to the input tax due or paid - Overall determination of the taxable amount for a given period - Not compatible)
2013/C 344/03
Language of the case: Spanish

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: L. Lozano Palacios and C. Soulay, Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of Spain (represented by: S. Centeno Huerta, Agent)

Interveners in support of the defendant: Czech Republic (represented by: M. Smolek, T. Müller and J. Očková, Agents), French Republic (represented by: G. de Bergues and J.-S. Pilczer, Agents), Republic of Poland (represented by: A. Kraińska, A. Kramarczyk, M. Szpunar and B. Majczyna, Agents), Portuguese Republic (represented by: L. Inez Fernandes and R. Laires, Agents), Republic of Finland (represented by: J. Heliskoski and M. Pere, Agents)

Re:

Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Infringement of Articles 73, 168, 169, 226 and 306 to 310 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (OJ 2006 L 347, p. 1) — Special scheme for travel agents

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Declares that






—


by excluding from the special scheme for travel agents sales to the public, by retail agents acting in their own name, of travel services organised by wholesale agents;










—


by authorising travel agents, in certain circumstances, to charge in the invoice an overall amount of value added tax that is not related to the value added tax actually charged to the customer, and by authorising the customer, where he is a taxable person, to deduct this overall amount from the value added tax payable; and










—


by authorising travel agencies, in so far as they benefit from the special scheme, to make an overall determination of the taxable amount for each tax period,




the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 168, 226 and 306 to 310 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax;










2.


Dismisses the action as to the remainder;










3.


Orders the European Commission to bear one quarter of its costs;










4.


Orders the Kingdom of Spain to bear its own costs and to pay three-quarters of the costs of the European Commission;










5.


Orders the Czech Republic, the French Republic, the Republic of Poland, the Portuguese Republic and the Republic of Finland to bear their own costs.






(1)  OJ C 186, 25.6.2011.