Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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Tax provisions ° Harmonization of laws ° Turnover taxes ° Common system of value added tax ° Supply of services ° Determination of the place where taxable transactions are effected ° Cultural and artistic activities and ancillary activities ° Ancillary activities ° Definition ° Sound-engineering for artistic events with the supply of the requisite equipment and operating staff ° Included

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 9(2)(c))

Summary

The first indent of Article 9(2)(c) of the Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes which, under the special scheme for services supplied between taxable persons where the cost of the services is included in the price of the goods, lays down that the place where services relating to certain activities, including cultural and artistic activities and, where relevant, services ancillary thereto, are supplied is the place where those services are physically carried out, must be interpreted as covering the activity of a person who provides sound-engineering for artistic or entertainment events by choosing and operating the equipment used, adjusting it to the particular acoustic conditions and the desired sound effects, and who supplies the requisite equipment and operating staff, where the service which he provides constitutes a prerequisite for the performance of the principal artistic or entertainment service supplied. The fact that the person concerned has undertaken in addition to coordinate the sound effects to be produced with his assistance with certain visual effects produced by other persons cannot affect this interpretation of that provision.

The intention of the Community legislature was that where artistic or entertainment services are supplied in a Member State and the organizer of the event charges the final consumer tax in the same State, that tax ° its assessment basis being all those services the cost of which is included in the price of the complete service paid for by the final consumer ° must be paid to that State and not to the various Member States in which the various intermediate suppliers of services have established their businesses.