CELEX: 51987PC0321
Language: en
Date: 1987-08-21
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE SUPPLEMENTING THE COMMON SYSTEM OF VALUE ADDED TAX AND AMENDING DIRECTIVE 77/388/EEC - APPROXIMATION OF VAT RATES -

No C 250/2                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                18. 9. 87
                                                                 II
                                                         (Preparatory Acts)
                                                   COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Directive supplementing the common system of value added tax and
                               amending Directive 77/388/EEC — approximation of VAT rates
                                                        COM(87) 321 final
                                 (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 7 August 1987)
                                                          (87/C 250/02)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                                '3.    Member States shall apply two rates of value
                                                                        added tax, namely a standard rate and a reduced rate.
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 99                        The reduced rate may not be less than 4 % or more
thereof,                                                                than 9 %.
                                                                        The standard rate may not be less than 14 % or more
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                      than 20 %.
Having regard       to   the   opinion    of   the   European           4. (a) The reduced rate shall be applied to
Parliament,                                                                     transactions relating to the following goods
                                                                                and services:
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                                — foodstuffs, excluding alcoholic beverages,
Social Committee,
                                                                                — energy products for heating and lighting,
Whereas completing the internal market, which is one of                         — water supplies,
the fundamental objectives of the Community, requires
that fiscal frontiers be abolished, that is to say that the                     — pharmaceutical products,
system of remission of tax on exportation and the                               — books, newspapers and periodicals,
imposition of tax on importation and of frontier controls
on taxable persons as well as on private persons be                             — passenger transport.
discontinued;                                                               (b) The normal rate shall be applied to
                                                                                transactions relating to goods and services
Whereas, if distortions are to be avoided, such abolition                       other than those set out in (a).'
implies in the case of value added tax, not only a
uniform tax base but also the same number of rates and               2. Paragraph 2 of Article 28 is hereby deleted.
rate levels which are sufficiently close as between
Member States; whereas it is therefore necessary to                                           Article 2
amend Council Directive 77/388/EEC (*), as last
                                                                     1.     Member States shall take the necessary measures to
amended by the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal,
                                                                     comply with this Directive not later than 31 December
                                                                     1992. They shall forthwith inform the Commission
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                          thereof.
                           Article 1                                 2.     Member States shall communicate to the
                                                                     Commission the texts of all the provisions of national
Directive 77/388/EEC is hereby amended as follows:                   law which they adopt in the field governed by this
                                                                     Directive.
1. Article 12 (3) and (4) are replaced by the following:
                                                                                              Article 3
(') OJ No L 145, 13. 6. 1977, p. 1.                                  This Directive is addressed to the Member States.