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 12 February 2015, Italy has requested to be authorised to introduce a measure derogating from Article 193 of the VAT Directive. In accordance with the second paragraph of Article 395 of that Directive, the Commission informed the other Member States by letter dated 16 March 2015 of the request made by Italy. By letter dated 17 March 2015, the Commission notified Italy that it had all the information it considered necessary for appraisal of the request.

Italy requests a special measure derogating from Article 193 of the VAT Directive as regards the application of the reverse charge mechanism in relation to supplies to so-called large retailers, a concept which refers to hypermarkets, supermarkets and hard discount stores which would be identified via their activity code. The derogation would be applicable to all types of consumer goods supplied to these large retailers and intended to be sold by them to final consumers. The measure, being dependent on the authorisation of the Council, has not entered into force yet in Italy.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)214: Follow the progress of this communication through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:214:FIN

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