Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Tax provisions Harmonisation of laws Turnover taxes Common system of value added tax Supply of services Determination of the place where taxable transactions are effected Composite supply involving the disposal of waste Refund of tax to taxable persons not established in the territory of the country Refusal to refund where part of the work covered by the contract has been subcontracted by the taxable persons who are holders of a main contract and not established in the territory of the country to a taxable person who is established in the territory of the country Not permissible

(Council Directives 77/388, Art. 9(1), and 79/1072, Art. 2)

Summary

$$The connection of a composite supply taken as a whole with Article 9(1) of the Sixth Directive 77/388 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes, according to which the place where a service is supplied is to be deemed to be the place where the supplier has established his business or has a fixed establishment, or with the fourth indent of Article 9(2)(c), according to which the place of supply of services relating to work on movable tangible property is the place where those services are physically carried out, must be such as to ensure its rational and uniform taxation.

Thus, where the holder of the main contract for a composite supply of services relating to waste disposal has its business or a fixed establishment in a Member State, the services which it performs are deemed to be supplied in the first State, even if it entrusts the actual disposal of the waste to a subcontractor, who is a taxable person for the purposes of value added tax in another Member State, whilst paying the corresponding VAT. Since the conditions to which the refund of value added tax is subject under the Eighth Directive 79/1072 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes Arrangements for the refund of value added tax to taxable persons not established in the territory of the country are thus fulfilled, the main contractor is justified in subsequently claiming, on the basis of Article 2 of the Eighth Directive, the refund of the value added tax paid in that other Member State.

Accordingly a Member State fails to fulfil its obligations under that Directive, in particular Article 2 thereof, by refusing to refund to taxable persons established in another Member State, who are holders of a main contract for a composite supply of services relating to waste disposal, the value added tax which they have been required to pay where they have subcontracted part of the work covered by such a contract to a taxable person established in the territory of the country.

( see paras 40, 53-54, and operative part 1 )