Brussels, 24/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to take Greece to the Court of Justice and send Denmark a formal request because the Commission considers that the registration tax incompatible with Directive 83/183/EEC, which provides for the exemption of personal property imported permanently from another Member State by private individuals.
Greece: Based on a series of complaints to the Commission and a number of petitions lodged with the European Parliament revealed that the Greek authorities are not respecting the Directive with regard to tax exemption on at least three points: 1) instead of granting the "tax exemption" for cars laid down in the Directive, Greece currently taxes cars brought into Greece by individuals moving to Greece from another Member State at a rate of one fifth of the tax normally paid before a car can be put on the road in Greece; 2) the Greek authorities apply a restrictive interpretation to the concept of "normal residence", which gets rid of the exemption for Greek nationals who have left the country to live and work in another Member State for a number of years; 3) the Greek authorities require the production of a long-term residence permit for Greece as proof of transfer of normal residence often takes more than six months to obtain, in which case their vehicles can be impounded on the grounds that no tax has been paid on them.
Denmark: Also on the basis of a number of complaints, the Commission found that the Danish authorities might be misinterpreting the Directive on the registration tax for people who definitively transfer to the country, that is paid at a rate of between 105% and 180% of the value of the vehicle, judged to be both "exorbitant and disproportionate" by the Commission.
Last September the Commission presented a communication in which it proposed the gradual phasing out of the registration tax in Member States and to in the meantime set up a system of tax refunds in order to avoid paying taxes twice and facilitate free movement.