CELEX: 51982PC0402
Language: en
Date: 1982-07-05
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A FOURTEENTH COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE HARMONIZATION OF THE LAWS OF THE MEMBER STATES RELATING TO TURNOVER TAXES - DEFFERED PAYMENT OF THE TAX PAYABLE ON IMPORTATION BY TAXABLE PERSONS

6. 8. 82                         Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 203/11
 8. Article 49 (2) (b) is replaced by the following:                                       Article 2
                                                                 This Regulations shall enter into force on 1 July
                                                                  1983.
                                                                 It shall apply with effect from 1 July 1984.
    '(b) in other cases, if a document establishing the          This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
          Community status of the goods is produced.'            directly applicable in all Member States.
              Proposal for a 14th Council Directive on the harmonization of the laws of the Member
              States relating to turnover taxes — Deferred payment of the tax payable on importation
                                                    by taxable persons
                               (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 9 July 1982)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITES,                          Whereas, as the experience of certain Member States
                                                                 has shown, the deferred payment of the tax payable
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the
                                                                on importation under the conditions laid down in the
European Economic Community, and in particular                   second paragraph of Article 23 of Council Directive
Articles 99 and 100 thereof,                                     77/388/EEC (') best meets the requirements of
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,              simplification and of combating tax evasion; whereas
                                                                deferred payment so defined means that the Member
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-               States authorize taxable persons not to pay the tax at
liament,                                                        the time of importation, on condition that this tax is
                                                                mentioned as tax due in a return to be submitted
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
                                                                under Article 22 (4) of that Directive;
Social Committee,
Whereas the basic aim of the Treaty is to establish,            Whereas, in any event, deferred payment cannot be
within the framework of an economic union, a                    authorized for taxable persons who, being subject to
common market in which there is healthy competition             a special scheme, are not required to submit such
and which is similar to a domestic market;                      returns;
Whereas to obligations of persons liable to pay the             Whereas Member States, to be in a position to
value added tax due on importation in intra-                    combat tax evasion, need to know exactly which
Community trade must be laid down in the light of               taxable persons         use the defferred       payment
this objective, which is limited, in this context, only         arrangements; whereas the best way to achieve this
by the need to combat tax evasion within the                    aim is to use a procedure of prior authorization;
Community;                                                      whereas it should be laid down that the authorization
Whereas the national provisions in force in some                should only be refused or withdrawn when the
Member States call for simplification; whereas this             honesty in tax matters of the person concerned
simplification should take the form of an appreciable           appears to be open to question, in view of breaches of
reduction in the cost involved in the declaration of            Customs legislation or of legislation relating to
imports and the payment of tax due, to the advantage            turnover taxes as established under the administrative
of both those liable to tax and the competent auth-             or judicial procedures in force in the Member States.
orities;
                                                                Whereas the use of the deferred                 payment
Whereas, while leaving to the Member States the                 arrangements should be limited to taxable persons
general responsibility for laying down the detailed             established within the country for goods which they
rules for the making of import declarations and the             import for the purposes of their taxable activities;
ensuing payments, it is necessary to establish
harmonized arrangements for the payment of the tax              Whereas Member States should be authorized to
due on imports by persons who are liable to value               apply more liberal measures than the Community
added tax on goods which satisfy the conditions laid            provisions, and in particular to extend those
down in Article 9 (2) of the EEC Treaty or which, in            provisions to imports of goods which are not in free
the case of products wich are covered by the EEC                circulation at the time of their importation;
Treaty, have been released for free circulation, such
imports representing the bulk of intra-Community
trade;                                                          (') O J N o L 145, 13.6. 1977, p. 1.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 203/12                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              6.8.82
Whereas the introduction of the deferred payment                    5.    The authorization referred to in paragraph 2
arrangements may have consequences for the budgets                  shall be issued in writing within two months of
of some Member States; whereas they should be                       the application being submitted. It shall be granted
authorized to spread these consequences over a                      for an unlimited period and shall be valid for any
 period of time,                                                    goods imported by the taxable person after it has
                                                                    been issued. A copy of the authorization must be
                                                                    produced to the competent authorities when the
                                                                    import formalities are carried out.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
                                                                   The authorization shall cease to be valid if the
                                                                    taxable person no longer meets the conditions laid
                          Article 1
                                                                    down in the preceding paragraphs.
Article 23 of Directive          77/388/EEC     is hereby
                                                                    6.    The issue of the authorization may not be
replaced by the following:
                                                                    subject to the provision of a guarantee of any
     'Article 23                                                    kind whatever.
               Obligations in respect of imports                   The competent authorities may refuse or
                                                                   withdraw authorization in respect of persons who
     1.      As regards imported goods, Member States               have committed breaches of customs legislation or
    shall lay down, subject to the following                       of the legislation relating to turnover taxes
    provisions, the detailed rules for the making of               involving      fraud      established   under     the
    the declarations and payments.                                  administrative or judicial procedures in force in
                                                                   the Member States.
    2.     As regards imports of goods which:
    — satisfy the conditions laid down in Article 9                7.     Member States may:
         (2) of the EEC Treaty,                                    — extend the provisions of the foregoing
    — or, in the case of products which are covered                     paragraphs to imported goods which do not
         by the EEC Treaty, have been released for                      fulfil the conditions mentioned in the first
         free circulation,                                              subparagraph of paragraph 2,
                                                                   — apply the provisions of the foregoing
    Member States shall authorize any taxable person
                                                                        paragraphs to taxable persons not established
    who so requests not to pay the tax payable on
                                                                        within the territory of the country,
    importation at the time when the goods enter the
    territory of the country, provided that the tax is             — apply provisions which provide automatic
    shown as tax payable and, where appropriate, as                     authorization for all or certain taxable
    deductible on the first return submitted after the                  persons, in respect of all or a part of their
    importation, pursuant to Article 22 (4).                            imports.
     Member States shall apply the same provisions to              The provisions applicable to taxable persons not
     any taxable person who so requests in respect of              established within the Community may under no
    the tax payable upon the declaration for home use              circumstances be more favourable that those
     of goods which fulfil the conditions mentioned in              applicable to taxable persons established in a
    the preceding subparagraph and which have been                  Member State.'
     placed upon importation under one of the                                            Article 2
     arrangements provided for in Article 16(1) (A) or
     under arrangements for transit or temporary                1.     Member States shall bring into force the
     admission.                                                provisions necessary to comply with this Directive as
                                                                from 1 January 1984.
     The abovementioned authorization shall be issued
     only for goods intended to be used for the                 2.     During the year 1984, those Member States for
     purposes of the taxable transactions of taxable           which implementation of this Directive may have
     persons.                                                   budgetary implications may limit the use of the
                                                                deferred payment system mentioned in paragraph 1 to
     3.     For the purposes of paragraph 2, the person
                                                                one half of the tax payable on imports qualifying for
     liable for payment of the tax within the meaning
                                                                such deferred payment.
     of Article 21 (2) shall be the recipient of the
     goods designated on the documents relating to              3.     Member States shall inform the Commission of
     their importation of declaration for home use.             the provisions which they adopt for the purpose of
                                                                implementing this Directive.
     4.     In order to be able to benefit from the
     provisions of paragraph 2, the taxable person must                                  Article 3
     have a fixed establishment within the territory of
     the country in question.                                   This Directive is addressed to the Member States.