CELEX: 51986PC0444
Language: en
Date: 1986-09-30
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE AMENDING DIRECTIVE 77/388/EEC ON THE HARMONIZATION OF THE LAWS OF THE MEMBER STATES RELATING TO TURNOVER TAXES IN RESPECT OF THE COMMON VALUE ADDED TAX SCHEME APPLICABLE TO SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES

No C 272/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                              28.10.86
                         Article 7                                2. Member States shall forward to the Commission
                                                                  the text of all provisions of national law which they
                                                                  adopt in the field covered by this Directive.
 1. Member States shall take the measures necessary to                                     Article 8
comply with this Directive by 1 July 1987 at the latest.
They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof.             This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
             Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 77/388/EEC on the harmonization of the
             laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes in respect of the common value added tax
                                   scheme applicable to small and medium-sized businesses
                                                     COM(86) 444 final
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 9 October 1986)
                                                       (86/C 272/11)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                              Article 24
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 99
thereof,                                                             Special scheme for small and medium-sized under-
                                                                                              takings
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                     1. (a) Member States shall apply a tax exemption to
                                                                             taxable persons whose annual turnover is less
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-                            than the equivalent in national currency of
liament,                                                                     10 000 ECU.
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,
                                                                        (b) Member States may apply a tax exemption to
                                                                             taxable persons whose annual turnover is less
Whereas, in accordance with Article 24 of the Sixth                          than the equivalent in national currency of
Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the                           35 000 ECU.
harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating
to turnover taxes — common system of value added tax:
uniform basis of assessment ('), as last amended by the
Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal, Member States
                                                                     2. The exemption shall apply to the supply of
apply exemptions and special schemes for charging and
                                                                     goods and services by small and medium-sized under-
collecting VAT in the case of small businesses other than
                                                                     takings.
those covered by the common flat-rate scheme for
farmers;
Whereas, the Commission has reported to the Council                  3. Turnover for the purposes of paragraph 1 shall
on the application of these various schemes and has                  consist of the amount, exclusive of value added tax,
suggested improvements which would ensure greater                    of goods and services supplied as defined in Articles
convergence in the application of VAT in this area and               5 and 6, to the extent that they are taxed, including
achieve greater simplification in handling VAT in small              transactions exempted with refund of tax previously
and medium-sized business,                                           paid in accordance with Article 28 (2), and the
                                                                     amount of the transactions exempted pursuant to
                                                                     Article 15, the amount of real property transactions,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                          the financial transactions referred to in Article 13
                                                                     B (d), and insurance services, unless these
                         Article 1                                   transactions are ancillary transactions.
Article 24 of Directive 77/388/EEC is hereby replaced
by the following:
                                                                     However, disposals of tangible or intangible capital
                                                                     assets of a business shall not be taken into account
0) OJNoL 145, 13.6. 1977, p. 1.                                      for the purposes of calculating turnover.
 ---pagebreak--- 28.10.86                                Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 272/13
   4.     Taxable persons exempt from tax shall not be                (g) Member States may introduce, for certain groups
   entitled to deduct tax in accordance with the                           of taxable persons whose purchases are
   provisions of Article 17, nor to show the tax on their                  sufficiently homogeneous in relation to their
   invoices or on any other documents serving as                           turnover, flat-rate percentages for calculating
   invoices.                                                               deductible VAT as a proportion of their
                                                                           turnover, provided this does not lead to a
                                                                           reduction of tax. Member States wishing to
                                                                           introduce flat-rate percentages shall inform the
   5.     Taxable persons coming under the exemption
                                                                           Commission in accordance with the procedure
   scheme may opt either for the normal value added
                                                                           set out in paragraph 8.
   tax scheme or, where appropriate, for a simplified
   scheme.
                                                                      7.     A Member State may be authorized to retain:
   6.     Member States shall introduce a simplified                  (a) its existing exemption scheme on condition that
   scheme for charging and collecting the tax in                           such regime is more favourable to small and
   accordance with the following provisions:                               medium-sized businesses than that set out in
                                                                           paragraphs 1 to 5;
   (a) the scope of the simplified scheme for charging                (b) its existing simplified regime, on condition that
        and collecting the tax shall be limited to                         this regime is calculated to simplify the
        businesses with an annual turnover of less than                    obligations of taxable persons, in particular as
        the equivalent in national currency of 150 000                     regards the charging and collection of the tax, in
        ECU.                                                               a manner wich is no less favourable to small and
                                                                           medium-sized businesses than that set out in
                                                                           paragraph 6.
   (b) Notwithstanding the first subparagraph of Article
        10 (2), the chargeable event shall be the payment             8.     A Member State which wishes to introduce the
        for the goods or services supplied.                           measures referred to in paragraph 6 (g) or to retain
                                                                      its existing special scheme as provided for in
                                                                      paragraph 7 shall inform the Commission and shall
   (c) As a corollary, and notwithstanding Article                    provide it with all relevant information. For the
        17 (1), the right to deduct shall arise at the time           measures referred to in paragraph 6 (g), the Member
        of payment for the goods or services by the                   State shall provide details of the information used to
        taxable person.                                               calculate the flat-rate percentages and of the size of
                                                                      purchases made at different rates in the economic
                                                                      sector concerned.
   (d) The transitional provisions of Article 28 (3) (d)
        derogating from the principle of immediate                    9.     The Commission shall inform the other
        deduction laid down in the first subparagraph of              Member States of the measures envisaged by the
        Article 18 (2) shall not de applicable.                        Member State, pursuant to paragraph 7, within two
                                                                       months and shall submit, if it considers it appro-
                                                                      priate, a proposal to the Council with a view to auth-
    (e) The taxable person shall make an annual return,                orizing such measures. The Council shall decide by
        each Member State endeavouring to ensure that                  qualified majority after the European Parliament has
        the date of the return is the same as that of the              given its opinion.
         return required from the taxpayer in respect of
         direct taxation.
                                                                       10.    The level of the Community exemption
                                                                       provided for in paragraph 1 (a) and (b) and the
                                                                       amount of turnover set out in paragraph 6 (a) shall
    (f) The taxable person shall make monthly or
                                                                       be revised each year, by a decision of the
         quarterly advance payments equal to one-twelfth
                                                                       Commission, in order to maintain their values in real
         or one-quarter, respectively, of the net amount
                                                                       terms. The Commission's decision shall be taken by
         on value added tax paid the previous year, unless
                                                                       1 October each year and shall take effect from
         he declares on his own responsibility that such
                                                                       1 January the following year.
         advance payments are greater than the tax
         actually due for the current year. He shall make
         adjustments depending on the real net amount of               11.     The equivalent in national currency of the
        value added tax indicated in his annual returns                ECU which shall apply for the implementation of this
         and pay any balance due when the return is filed.             Directive shall be fixed once a year by the
         If the balance is in his favour, the Member State             Commission. The rates applicable shall be those
         shall repay the amount thereof in the month                   obtained on the first working day of October, with
         following the adjustment.                                     effect from 1 January the following year.'
 ---pagebreak--- No C 272/14                         Official Journal of the European Communities                              28.10.86
                         Article 2                             3.   Member States shall bring into force the measures
                                                               necessary to comply with this Directive not later than
1.   Member States which wish to make use of the               1 April 1987.
option set out in Article 24 (7) shall introduce their
request to the Commission within six months from the
date of adoption of this Directive.
                                                               4.   Member States shall inform the Commission of the
2.   Member States shall provide the Commission with           measures which they adopt to give effect to this
the whole of the information necessary to determine the        Directive. The Commission shall inform the other
own resources due, and in particular with regard to the        Member States thereof.
number of taxable persons and their corresponding
turnover where such turnover exceeds the equivalent in
national currency of 10 000 ECU and who are subject to
                                                                                        Article 3
the special scheme for small and medium-sized
businesses.                                                    This Directive is addressed to the Member States.