Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Tax provisions – Harmonisation of laws – Turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax – Exemptions provided for in the Sixth Directive

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 13A(1)(e))

Summary

Article 13A(1)(e) of Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, as amended by Directive 95/7, must be interpreted as meaning that it does not apply to supplies of dental prostheses effected by an intermediary who does not have the status of dentist or dental technician, but has acquired such prostheses from a dental technician.

The terms ‘dentists’ and ‘dental technicians’ in that article of the Sixth Directive are unambiguous and, if the wording of that provision is not to be radically altered and the condition relating to the status of the supplier rendered inoperative, those terms clearly cannot be understood as including intermediaries who are not specifically either dentists or dental technicians. Consequently, since the Community legislature did not intend to extend the exemption referred to in that provision to supplies of dental prostheses which are not made by dentists or dental technicians, neither the objectives of that exemption nor the principle of fiscal neutrality can compel a broad interpretation of Article 13A of the Sixth Directive in that respect. On the contrary, having regard to the specific wording of the conditions for the exemption provided for in that article, any interpretation which extends the wording of that provision must be regarded as incompatible with the purpose thereof as intended by the Community legislature.

(see paras 35-37, 42, operative part)