Case C-161/14: Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 4 June 2015 — European Commission v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Common system of value added tax — Directive 2006/112/EC — Article 98(2) — Category (10) of Annex III — Reduced rate of VAT applicable to the provision, construction, renovation and alteration of housing, as part of a social policy — Category (10a) of Annex III — Reduced rate of VAT applicable to renovation and repairing of private dwellings, excluding materials which account for a significant part of the value of the service supplied — National legislation applying a reduced rate of VAT to supplies of services of installing ‘energy-saving materials’ and supplies of such materials)
Date: 2015-06-04
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: United Kingdom, VAT, energy saving, housing policy, infringement of EU law, law of states, subsidised housing, tax relief








C_2015236EN.01001502.xml










20.7.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 236/15





Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 4 June 2015 — European Commission v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(Case C-161/14) (1)

((Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations - Common system of value added tax - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 98(2) - Category (10) of Annex III - Reduced rate of VAT applicable to the provision, construction, renovation and alteration of housing, as part of a social policy - Category (10a) of Annex III - Reduced rate of VAT applicable to renovation and repairing of private dwellings, excluding materials which account for a significant part of the value of the service supplied - National legislation applying a reduced rate of VAT to supplies of services of installing ‘energy-saving materials’ and supplies of such materials))
(2015/C 236/21)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: M. Clausen and C. Soulay, acting as Agents)

Defendant: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented by: L. Christie and M Holt, acting as Agents, and K. Lasok QC)

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1)


Declares that, by applying a reduced rate of value added tax to supplies of services of installing ‘energy-saving materials’ and to supplies of such materials by a person who installs those materials in residential accommodation:






—


to the extent that those supplies cannot be considered as ‘the provision, construction, renovation and alteration of housing, as part of a social policy’ for the purposes of Category 10 of Annex III to Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, as amended by Council Directive 2009/47/EC of 5 May 2009;










—


to the extent that those supplies fall outside the purview of ‘renovation and repairing of private dwellings’ for the purposes of Category 10a of Annex III to that directive, and










—


to the extent that even where those supplies fall within the purview of renovation and repairing of private dwellings for the purposes of Category (10a) of Annex III to that directive, those supplies include materials which account for a significant part of the value of the services supplied,




the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 98 of Directive 2006/112, as amended by Directive 2009/47, read together with Annex III to that directive;










2)


Orders the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to pay the costs.






(1)  OJ C 212, 7.7.2014.