Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Tax provisions - Harmonization of legislation - Turnover tax - Common system of value-added tax - Taxable persons - Bodies governed by public law - Exclusion of activities pursued as public authorities - Concept - Liability to tax where there are distortions of competition and economic activities which are important and not carried on on a negligible scale - Scope - Transposition of corresponding criteria into national law - Member States' obligations

( Council Directive 77/388, Art . 4(5 ) )

Summary

The first subparagraph of Article 4(5 ) of the Sixth Directive on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes must be interpreted as meaning that activities pursued "as public authorities" within the meaning of that provision are those engaged in by bodies governed by public law under the special legal regime applicable to them and do not include activities pursued by them under the same legal conditions as those that apply to private traders . It is for the national court to classify the activities in question in the light of that criterion .

The second subparagraph must be interpreted as meaning that the Member States are required to ensure that bodies subject to public law are treated as taxable persons in respect of activities in which they engage as public authorities where those activities may also be engaged in, in competition with them, by private individuals, in cases in which their treatment as non-taxable persons could lead to significant distortions of competition, but they are not obliged to transpose that criterion literally into their national law or to lay down precise quantitative limits for such treatment .

The third subparagraph must be interpreted as meaning that it does not require the Member States to transpose into their tax legislation the criterion of the non-negligible scale of activities as a condition for treating the activities listed in Annex D as taxable .