Brussels, 14/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 14 December, the European Commission published a report clarifying EU rules on car tax and recommending measures to make it easier for individuals and companies to transfer cars to other member states, and also removing obstacles to hiring cars overseas.
Despite European Court of Justice case law and legal proceedings against a number of member states, variations in national tax systems, discrimination and double taxation of cars taken from one country to another persist, and the Commission therefore tried to clarify the legal situation in the EU for the taxation of private cars, listing best practice for the member states to follow in order to provide better information on car tax in different countries, refunding some of the car registration fee for cars moved permanently overseas, allowing the temporary use of a vehicle in another member state (particularly hired cars) and, in a working document published which accompanies the report, there are details of the frequently asked legal questions on car tax and legal protection for individuals and companies in the EU under European case-law.
Draft legislation was published in 2005 to deal with this, but it came to nothing because ministers refused to harmonise car tax systems or scrap national car registration fees and replace them with a “green tax.” This year, the Commission unveiled draft legislation to simplify the rules for registering a car in a different member state, which could lead to savings of up to €1.5 billion in total for companies, individuals and local authorities. (FG/transl.fl)