Case C-145/18: Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 5 September 2019 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État — France) — Regards Photographiques SARL v Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Common system of value added tax (VAT) – Directive 2006/112/EC – Article 103(2)(a) – Article 311(1), point 2 – Annex IX, Part A, point 7 – Reduced rate of VAT – Works of art – Concept – Photographs taken by the artist, printed by him or under his supervision, signed and numbered and limited to 30 copies – National legislation restricting the application of the reduced rate of VAT only to photographs that have artistic character)
Date: 2019-09-05
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: VAT, artistic profession, intellectual property, photograph, reprography, tax relief, visual arts








C_2019383EN.01002201.xml










11.11.2019   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 383/22






Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 5 September 2019 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État — France) — Regards Photographiques SARL v Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics
(Case C-145/18) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Common system of value added tax (VAT) - Directive 2006/112/EC - Article 103(2)(a) - Article 311(1), point 2 - Annex IX, Part A, point 7 - Reduced rate of VAT - Works of art - Concept - Photographs taken by the artist, printed by him or under his supervision, signed and numbered and limited to 30 copies - National legislation restricting the application of the reduced rate of VAT only to photographs that have artistic character)
(2019/C 383/22)
Language of the case: French

Referring court

Conseil d’État

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Regards Photographiques SARL

Defendant: Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics

Operative part of the judgment







1.


In order to be regarded as works of art eligible for the reduced rate of value added tax (VAT) under Article 103(1) and (2)(a) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax, read in conjunction with point 2 of Article 311(1) of that directive and point 7 of Part A of Annex IX thereto, photographs must meet the criteria set out in that point 7, in that they have been taken by their creator, printed by him or under his supervision, signed and numbered and limited to 30 copies, to the exclusion of all other criteria, in particular the assessment by the competent national tax authority of their artistic character;










2.


Article 103(1) and (2)(a) of Directive 2006/112, read in conjunction with point 2 of Article 311(1) of that directive and point 7 of Part A of Annex IX thereto, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which restricts the application of the reduced rate of VAT only to photographs that have artistic character, in so far as the existence of such artistic character is subject to an assessment by the competent national tax authority which is not made within the confines of objective, clear and precise criteria set by that national legislation, making it possible to determine precisely the photographs to which that legislation reserves the application of the reduced rate of VAT, in such a way as to avoid infringing the principle of fiscal neutrality.






(1)  OJ C 161, 7.5.2018.