Brussels, 22/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has decided to pursue several Member States for infringements to VAT legislation.
Spain: The European Commission has decided to take Spain to the Court of Justice over the scheme it applies on goods removed from tax warehouses. Spain has made removal subject to completion of a special form and the payment of VAT. In so doing it has doubled the formalities (imposing a special form in addition to the normal VAT declaration and two successive VAT payments) in a manner prohibited by the Directive and contrary to the spirit of facilitation and simplification of taxable operations in which tax warehouses were created.
Luxembourg: the Commission has also sent formal requests to apply VAT legislation correctly to Luxembourg for not complying with the six-month time limit for refund of VAT levied on taxable persons not established in that country. Despite the Luxembourg Government's announcement of a plan to remedy the situation, the Commission continues to receive numerous complaints regarding the substantial delays.
Austria: the Commission is calling on Austria to modify its application of a simplified tax scheme for taxable persons engaged in passenger transport. This simplified tax scheme is for the international carriage of passengers by taxable persons established in other Member States and in certain third countries. These businesses are exempt from lodging declarations and do not have to pay the net VAT if their annual turnover in Austria is less than EUR 22 000. The Commission considers it, firstly, very unlikely that the scheme is reserved in practice for small businesses, as the businesses concerned are involved in international transport, and secondly that Austria has failed to prove that the system does not lead to a reduction in tax, as no VAT is charged or paid.
Portugal: in a reasoned opinion, the Commission is accusing Portugal of obliging non-established taxable persons to use authorised financial entities by means of a transfer ordered from an account placed in a financial entity "authorised" by the Portuguese authorities. The Commission takes the view that this situation runs against the Treaty and, in particular, the freedom to provide services.
In a second reasoned opinion, the Commission attacks Portugal for the reduced VAT rate for use of Tagus bridge. The Portuguese authorities successfully stated before at the European Court of Justice that the bridge in question was operated by a public body. That would imply that the services in question should not be subject to VAT at all. In their reply to the letter, the Portuguese authorities held that it is a commercial enterprise belonging to a private consortium which operates the toll bridge. The Commission therefore considers that the services in question should be subject to VAT at the standard rate.