VAT: mutual assistance for the recovery of claims

This Directive lays down rules to be incorporated into the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States in order to ensure that claims arising out of the financing of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund or relating to agricultural levies, customs duties or value-added tax can be recovered in any Member State.

ACT

Council Directive 76/308/EEC of 15 March 1976 on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims resulting from operations forming part of the system of financing the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, and of agricultural levies and customs duties, and in respect of value-added tax [See amending acts]

SUMMARY

This Directive concerns mutual assistance for the recovery of claims.

The authority in a Member State seeking assistance with a claim covered by the Directive is known as the "applicant authority"; in order to recover the claim, it addresses a request for assistance to a competent authority in another Member State, known as the "requested authority".

At the request of the applicant authority, the requested authority is to provide any information which would be useful in the recovery of the claim.

At the request of the applicant authority, the requested authority is to notify to the addressee all instruments and decisions which emanate from the Member State of the applicant authority and relate to a claim and/or to its recovery.

At the request of the applicant authority, the requested authority is to recover claims which are the subject of an instrument permitting their enforcement.

The request for recovery sent by the applicant authority must be accompanied by an instrument permitting enforcement of the claim, which must not be contested in the applicant authority's own Member State. In addition, the measures taken in the applicant authority's Member State must not have resulted in the payment in full of the claim.

Claims are recovered in the currency of the Member State of the requested authority, which may, after consulting the applicant authority, allow the debtor time to pay; any interest charged here is remitted to the applicant authority's Member State.

An interested party wishing to contest the claim and/or the instrument permitting its enforcement issued in the Member State of the applicant authority may bring an action before the competent body of that Member State. Where it is the enforcement measures taken in the requested authority's Member State that are being contested, the action is to be brought before the competent body of that Member State. As soon as the requested authority is informed that an action has been brought, it must suspend the enforcement procedure.

Questions concerning periods of limitation are governed by the laws of the Member State of the applicant authority.

Member States renounce all claims upon each other for the reimbursement of costs resulting from mutual assistance under the Directive. The applicant authority's Member State is liable for costs incurred as a result of actions held to be unfounded, as far as either the substance of the claim or the validity of the instrument issued by the applicant authority is concerned.

A Committee on Recovery is set up and may examine any matter concerning the application of the Directive.

RELATED ACTS

Commission Directive 77/794/EEC of 4 November 1977 laying down detailed rules for implementing certain provisions of Council Directive 76/308/EEC on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims resulting from operations forming part of the system of financing the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, and of agricultural levies and customs duties, and in respect of value-added tax [Official Journal L 333 of 24.12.1977]

Council Directive 2001/44/EC of 15 June 2001 amending Directive 76/308/EEC on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims resulting from operations forming part of the system of financing the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund, and of agricultural levies and customs duties and in respect of value added tax and certain excise duties [Official Journal L 175 of 28.06.2001]

This Directive aims to extend the scope of mutual assistance as laid down by Directive 76/308/EEC on claims relating to certain revenue and wealth taxes, in order to better protect the financial interests of Member States and the neutrality of the internal market. It also aims to enable more efficient recovery of claims covered by a recovery request and finally, to encourage Member States to make use of mutual assistance for recovery.

Commission Directive 2002/94/EC of 9 December 2002 laying down detailed rules for implementing certain provisions of Council Directive 76/308/EEC on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and other measures [Official Journal L 337 of 13.12.2002]

Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament of 8 February 2006 on the use of the provisions on mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to certain levies, duties, taxes and other measures [COM(2006) 43 final - Not published in the Official Journal]

Last updated: 21.08.2006