Council Directive 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 laying down detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State

• Published date: 20 February 2008
• Official Gazette Publication: Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 44, 20 de febrero de 2008

2008L0009 — EN — 01.10.2010 — 001.001

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This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents

►B COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/9/EC of 12 February 2008 laying down detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State (OJ L 044, 20.2.2008, p.23)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2010/66/EU of 14 October 2010	L 275	1	20.10.2010

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▼B

COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2008/9/EC

of 12 February 2008

laying down detailed rules for the refund of value added tax, provided for in Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund but established in another Member State

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 93 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ( 1 ),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee ( 2 ),

Whereas:

(1) Considerable problems are posed, both for the administrative authorities of Member States and for businesses, by the implementing rules laid down by Council Directive 79/1072/EEC of 6 December 1979 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Arrangements for the refund of value added tax to taxable persons not established in the territory of the country ( 3 ).

(2) The arrangements laid down in that Directive should be amended in respect of the period within which decisions concerning applications for refund are notified to businesses. At the same time, it should be laid down that businesses too must provide responses within specified periods. In addition, the procedure should be simplified and modernised by allowing for the use of modern technologies.

(3) The new procedure should enhance the position of businesses since the Member States shall be liable to pay interest if the refund is made late and the right of appeal by businesses will be strengthened.

(4) For clarity and better reading purposes, the provision concerning the application of Directive 79/1072/EEC, previously contained in Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax ( 4 ), should now be integrated in this Directive.

(5) Since the objectives of this Directive cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(6) In accordance with point 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making ( 5 ), Member States are encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the interests of the Community, their own tables illustrating, as far as possible, the correlation between this Directive and the transposition measures, and to make them public.

(7) In the interest of clarity, Directive 79/1072/EEC should therefore be repealed, subject to the necessary transitional measures with respect to refund applications introduced before 1 January 2010,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

This Directive lays down the detailed rules for the refund of value added tax (VAT), provided for in Article 170 of Directive 2006/112/EC, to taxable persons not established in the Member State of refund, who meet the conditions laid down in Article 3.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘taxable person not established in the Member State of refund’ means a taxable person within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Directive 2006/112/EC who is not established in the Member State of refund but established in the territory of another Member State;

2. ‘Member State of refund’ means the Member State in which the VAT was charged to the taxable person not established in the Member State of refund in respect of goods or services supplied to him by other taxable persons in that Member State or in respect of the importation of goods into that Member State;

3. ‘refund period’ means the period mentioned in Article 16 covered by the refund application;

4. ‘refund application’ means the application for refund of VAT charged in the Member State of refund to the taxable person not established in the Member State of refund in respect of goods or services supplied to him by other taxable persons in that Member State or in respect of the importation of goods into that Member State;

5. ‘applicant’ means the taxable person not established in the Member State of refund making the refund application.

Article 3

This Directive shall apply to any taxable person not established in the Member State of refund who meets the following conditions:

(a) during the refund period, he has not had in the Member State of refund, the seat of his economic activity, or a fixed establishment from which business transactions were effected, or, if no such seat or fixed establishment existed, his domicile or normal place of residence;

(b) during the refund period, he has not supplied any goods or services deemed to have been supplied in the Member State of refund, with the exception of the following transactions:

(i) the supply of transport services and services ancillary thereto, exempted pursuant to Articles 144, 146, 148, 149, 151, 153, 159 or 160 of Directive 2006/112/EC;

(ii) the supply of goods and services to a person who is liable for payment of VAT in accordance with Articles 194 to 197 and Article 199 of Directive 2006/112/EC.

Article 4

This Directive shall not apply to:

(a) amounts of VAT which, according to the legislation of the Member State of refund, have been incorrectly invoiced;

(b) amounts of VAT which have been invoiced in respect of supplies of goods the supply of which is, or may be, exempt under Article 138 or Article 146(1)(b) of Directive 2006/112/EC.

Article 5

Each Member State shall refund to any taxable person not established in the Member State of refund any VAT charged in respect of goods or services supplied to him by other taxable persons in that Member State or in respect of the importation of goods into that Member State, insofar as such goods and services are used for the purposes of the following transactions:

(a) transactions referred to in Article 169(a) and (b) of Directive 2006/112/EC;

(b) transactions to a person who is liable for payment of VAT in accordance with Articles 194 to 197 and Article 199 of Directive 2006/112/EC as applied in the Member State of refund.

Without prejudice to Article 6, for the purposes of this Directive, entitlement to an input tax refund shall be determined pursuant to Directive 2006/112/EC as applied in the Member State of refund.

Article 6

To be eligible for a refund in the Member State of refund, a taxable person not established in the Member State of refund has to carry out transactions giving rise to a right of deduction in the Member State of establishment.

When a taxable person not established in the Member State of refund carries out in the Member State in which he is established both transactions giving rise to a right of deduction and transactions not giving rise to a right of deduction in that Member State, only such proportion of the VAT which is refundable in accordance with Article 5 may be refunded by the Member State of refund as is attributable to the former transactions in accordance with Article 173 of Directive 2006/112/EC as applied by the Member State of establishment.

Article 7

To obtain a refund of VAT in the Member State of refund, the taxable person not established in the Member State of refund shall...