Brussels, 09/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Value added tax (VAT) exemptions granted to services of general interest listed in the Sixth VAT Directive (77/388/EEC) may cause an uneven playing field between public and private operators or between profit-making and non-profit-making bodies. The Commission is aware of this phenomenon, caused by the privatisation of certain services of general interest since the EU legislation came into force, and is currently carrying out a root-and-branch review of VAT exemptions to prepare new legislation for 2006.
The Commission's is studying services of general interest under Article 13 of the VAT Directive. These include: public postal services apart from telecommunications and the transport of people; transporting sick and injured people in specially adapted vehicles; medical and paramedical care; social security and welfare services, including old people's homes; child protection; school and university education, private classes by teachers, professional training and re-training; religious and philosophical institutions' provision of personnel; services by non-profit making organisations involved in politics, trade unions, religion, patriotism, philosophy, philanthropy and civic groups; various services closely connected with sport and culture; and non-commercial services by public broadcasting organisations.
Other issues on the agenda of the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union in the second half of 2005 include communications on counterfeiting (to be unveiled in October), and direct and indirect taxation matters connected with relaunching the Lisbon Strategy and SME taxation according to home state taxation rules. The Commission is also expected to unveil new legislation to update the EU Customs Code. A public consultation exercise is being held in this connection until 16 September 2005, looking at the application measures for Regulation (EC) 648/2005 amending the Regulation establishing the Community Customs Code (see EUROPE 8997).