Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1.Member States - Obligations - Obligation to act in the place of the Council whenever it fails to act - None

( EEC Treaty, Art . 5 )

2.Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value-added tax - Sale by taxable persons of second-hand goods purchased from non-taxable persons - National rules which do not allow account to be taken of the residual tax contained in the purchase price - Not incompatible with the Community rules as they now stand

( Council Directive 77/388/EEC, Art . 32 )

Summary

1.Although it is true that if the Council fails to adopt measures falling within the exclusive competence of the European Communities, there can be no fundamental objection in certain cases to Member States' maintaining or introducing, pursuant to the duty to cooperate imposed on them by Article 5 of the Treaty, national measures designed to achieve Community objectives, no general principle can be inferred from that fact requiring the Member States to act in the place of the Council whenever it fails to adopt measures falling within its province .

2.Community law and the Community rules governing VAT do not, as they now stand, preclude national legislation which, for the purpose of calculating the VAT payable on the turnover arising from the sale of second-hand goods, does not allow account to be taken of the tax still contained in the price of goods which have been purchased from non-taxable individuals with a view to their resale .

Until the Community legislature has taken action and in so far as nowhere in the common system of value-added tax, as it stands at present, are to be found the necessary bases for determining and laying down detailed rules for applying a common system of taxation enabling double taxation to be avoided in trade in second-hand goods, it is necessary to continue to apply Article 32 of the Sixth Directive, which merely authorizes Member States that apply a special system of VAT to second-hand goods to retain that system but does not impose on them any obligation to introduce such a system if none exists .