Communication in accordance with Article 395 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC

Pursuant to Article 395 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (the VAT Directive), the Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise any Member State to introduce special measures for derogation from the provisions of this Directive, in order to simplify the procedure for collecting VAT or to prevent certain forms of tax evasion or avoidance. As this procedure provides for derogations from the general principles of VAT, in accordance with the consistent rulings from the European Court of Justice, such derogations should be proportionate and limited in scope.

By letter registered at the Commission on 14 January 2014, Estonia requested on the basis of Article 395 of the VAT Directive to be authorised to apply the reverse charge mechanism to supplies of precious stones with the aim of preventing tax fraud. However, since not enough information was provided regarding the fraud situation in the sector, the Commission sent a letter on 13 March 2014 requesting additional information in this respect. By letter registered at the Commission on 7 May 2014, Estonia provided further information in reply to this request.

In accordance with the second paragraph of Article 395 of that Directive, the Commission informed the other Member States by letter dated 10 June 2014 of the request made by Estonia. By letter dated 12 June 2014, the Commission notified Estonia that it had all the information it considered necessary for appraisal of the request.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)623: Follow the progress of this communication through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:623:FIN

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