Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Tax provisions – Internal taxation – Excise duty imposed on motor vehicles by reason of their first registration in national territory

(Arts 25 EC and 90 EC)

2. Tax provisions – Internal taxation – Excise duty imposed on motor vehicles by reason of their first registration in national territory

(Art. 90, first para., EC)

3. Tax provisions – Internal taxation – Excise duty imposed on motor vehicles by reason of their first registration in national territory

(Art. 28 EC; Council Directive 92/12, Art. 3(3), first para.)

Summary

1. An excise duty which affects all passenger vehicles not by reason of the fact that they cross the frontier but by reason of their first registration in the territory of the Member State does not constitute a customs duty on imports or a charge having equivalent effect within the meaning of Article 25 EC, but comes under the general system of internal taxation on goods and must therefore be examined in the light of Article 90 EC.

(see paras 24-25, operative part 1)

2. The first paragraph of Article 90 EC is to be interpreted as precluding an excise duty imposed on passenger vehicles by reason of their first registration in the territory of a Member State, in so far as the amount of the duty imposed on certain second-hand vehicles acquired in another Member State exceeds the residual amount of the same duty incorporated into the purchase price of similar vehicles already registered in the Member State which introduced that duty, which it is for the national court to verify.

(see para. 41, operative part 2)

3. Article 28 EC does not apply to a rule of national law requiring the submission of a simplified declaration within five days of the day of acquisition of any passenger vehicle from another Member State not yet registered in national territory where that requirement is indissociably linked to the obligation, on the acquirer, to pay an excise duty on first registration of the vehicle in national territory. Since the obligation to make the declaration is only the corollary of the vehicle being subject to excise duty, it does not fall within the scope of Article 28 EC, the scope of which does not extend to obstacles to trade covered by other specific provisions of the Treaty, such as obstacles of a fiscal nature or those having an effect equivalent to customs duties.

Similarly, the first subparagraph of Article 3(3) of Directive 92/12 on the general arrangements for products subject to excise duty and on the holding, movement and monitoring of such products, which under certain conditions authorises Member States to introduce or maintain taxes which do not give rise in intra-community trade to formalities linked to the crossing of a frontier, does not apply and therefore cannot preclude such legislation, since that formality is linked not to the crossing of a frontier but to the obligation to pay excise duty.

(see paras 47, 49-53, operative part 3)