Brussels, 31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - In an opinion published on 27 January 2011 in Case C-402/09 on the taxation of imported second-hand cars, European Court of Justice Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston says that the Romanian system is covered by Article 110 of the EU Treaty on the taxation of imports and Court of Justice case law on the issue. She was answering a legal question posed by the Sibiu appeals court in Romania about whether a recent ruling by the Romanian government is legal under EU rules. The Romanian law makes the first registration of an imported second-hand car liable to an environment tax, but the registration of non-imported second-hand cars is not covered by the tax.
Sharpston points out that the Romanian tax is an environment tax levied when the car is first registered in Romania, rather than an import tax as such. Article 110 of the EU Treaty bans member states from introducing rules that directly or indirectly discriminate against imports as opposed to local goods, but it leaves member states considerable freedom and autonomy when it comes to setting taxes and duties.
She explains that in this case, the new tax cannot be said to infringe Article 110 simply on the grounds of the fact that equivalent cars already on the market in Romania are not subject to the tax because the tax did not exist when those cars were first registered. When a new tax is brought in, there are inevitable differences of treatment and, given member states' sovereignty over tax, interpretation under EU law must cover whether each new tax is discriminatory in nature. The new tax would contravene Article 110 if the tax were higher than the residual tax included in the sales price of an equivalent second-hand car for which the tax had been paid when the vehicle was registered as a new car. For the amount of the new tax to be within the limits allowed by the EU Treaty, it would have to gradually decrease in line as closely as possible with the fall in value of the second-hand vehicle on the sales price for a new car. A set depreciation system that only covered the vehicle's age but not the mileage or other factors influencing the sale price could well prove insufficient in this connection. (F.G./transl.fl)