Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Tax provisions - Harmonization of laws - Turnover taxes - Common system of value added tax - Supplies of services - Determination of the relevant place for tax purposes - Services of consultants, engineers, consultancy bureaux, lawyers, accountants and other similar services - Definition - Services of a member of an arbitration tribunal - Excluded

(Council Directive 77/388, Art. 9(2)(e), third indent)

Summary

Article 9(2)(e), third indent, of the Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonization of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, which provides, as part of the special rules governing services supplied to customers established outside the Community or to taxable persons established in the Community but not in the same country as the supplier, that the place where the services of consultants, engineers, consultancy bureaux, lawyers, accountants and other similar services are supplied is to be the place where the customer has established his business or has a fixed establishment to which the service is supplied, uses the professions mentioned as a means of defining the categories of services to which it refers. On a proper construction, it does not refer to the services of a member of an arbitration tribunal.

The services of an arbitrator, which are principally and habitually those of settling a dispute between two or more parties, do not fall within the category of those carried out by a lawyer, which are principally and habitually those of representing or defending the interests of a person, or of those carried out by a consultant, engineer, consultancy bureau or accountant, since none of the services principally and habitually provided as part of any of those professions concerns the settling of a dispute between two or more parties. Nor can the services of an arbitrator be regarded as similar, within the meaning of Article 9(2)(e), to those of the professions listed in that provision since, based as they are on considerations of justice and equity, they do not serve the same purposes as those of a lawyer taking part in a negotiation with a view to reaching an agreement, which are essentially based on expediency and the weighing-up of interests, or of a consultant, engineer, consultancy bureau or accountant.