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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions) >> Alevizos (Taxation) [2007] EUECJ C-392/05 (26 April 2007) URL: https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2007/C39205.html Cite as: [2007] ECR I-3505, [2007] EUECJ C-392/5, [2007] EUECJ C-392/05 |
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(Freedom of movement for workers Directive 83/183/EEC Article 6 Definitive import into one Member State of a private vehicle from another Member State Member of the armed forces of one Member State posted temporarily to another Member State for official reasons Concept of 'normal residence')
In Case C-392/05,
REFERENCE for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC from the Simvoulio tis Epikratias (Greece), made by decision of 30 June 2005, received at the Court on 31 October 2005, in the proceedings
Georgios Alevizos
v
Ipourgos Ikonomikon,
composed of K. Lenaerts (Rapporteur), President of the Chamber, E. Juhász, R. Silva de Lapuerta, J. Malenovský and T. von Danwitz, Judges,
Advocate General: J. Kokott,
Registrar: L. Hewlett, Principal Administrator,
having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 14 December 2006,
after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:
Mr Alevizos, by P. Damouli, dikigoros,
the Greek Government, by M. Apessos, I. Bakopoulos and K. Boskovits, acting as Agents,
Commission of the European Communities, by D. Triantafyllou, acting as Agent,
after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 25 January 2007,
gives the following
Legal context
Community legislation
Directive 83/183
'... in order that the people of the Member States become more aware of the existence of the European Community, further measures to benefit private individuals should be taken in order to create conditions in the Community similar to those in a domestic market;
... in particular, the tax obstacles to the importation by private individuals of personal property into one Member State from another Member State are such as to hinder the free movement of persons within the Community; ... therefore, these obstacles should be eliminated as far as possible by the introduction of tax exemptions'.
'Specific and/or periodical duties and taxes connected with the use of such property within the country, such as for instance motor vehicle registration fees, road taxes and television licences, are not covered by this Directive.'
'1. For the purposes of this Directive, 'personal property' means property for the personal use of the persons concerned or the needs of their household. Such property must not, by reason of its nature or quantity, reflect any commercial interest, nor be intended for an economic activity within the meaning of Article 4 of Directive 77/388/EEC ...
2. The exemption for which Article 1 makes provision shall be granted for personal property:
...
(b) of which the person concerned has had the actual use before the change of residence is effected or the secondary residence established. In the case of motor-driven vehicles (including their trailers), caravans, mobile homes, pleasure boats and private aircraft, Member States may require that the person concerned should have had the use of them for a period of at least six months before the change of residence.
...'
'For the purposes of this Directive, 'normal residence' means the place where a person usually lives, that is for at least 185 days in each calendar year, because of personal and occupational ties or, in the case of a person with no occupational ties, because of personal ties which show close links between that person and the place where he is living.
However, the normal residence of a person whose occupational ties are in a different place from his personal ties and who consequently lives in turn in different places situated in two or more Member States shall be regarded as being the place of his personal ties, provided that such person returns there regularly. This last condition need not be met where the person is living in a Member State in order to carry out a task of a definite duration. Attendance at a university or school shall not imply transfer of normal residence.'
Directive 92/12/EEC
'... the concept of products subject to excise duty should be defined; ... only goods which are treated as such in all the Member States may be the subject of Community provisions; ...
... in order to ensure the establishment and functioning of the internal market, chargeability of excise duties should be identical in all the Member States;
...
... as a result of the abolition of the principle of taxes on imports in relations between Member States, the provisions on exemptions and allowances on imports cease to apply in respect of relations between Member States; ... these provisions should therefore be abolished and the directives concerned adapted accordingly'.
'This Directive shall apply at Community level to the following products as defined in the relevant Directives:
mineral oils,
alcohol and alcoholic beverages,
manufactured tobacco.'
'The provisions on excise duty laid down in the following Directives shall cease to apply on 31 December 1992:
...
Directive 83/183/EEC ...,
...'
National legislation
'1. The exemptions referred to in Article 3 of this Order shall be granted for personal property imported by Greek nationals having their normal residence in Greece who have left Greece to work abroad, where they remain working as an employee or otherwise for more than two (2) successive years and, when their work is terminated, return to Greece to settle there permanently.
2. The persons entitled to exemption as envisaged by the preceding paragraph shall include Greek civil servants (including diplomats), judicial officers, officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the armed forces, the public security forces and the harbour police corps who remain abroad for more than two (2) consecutive years solely and exclusively for the purpose of carrying out their duties and on termination of the latter return to Greece on transfer or permanently.'
'Motor vehicles and motorcycles which meet the conditions set out in Articles 9 and 10 of the EEC Treaty and are sent or transported into the country from other Member States of the Community shall be subject to the excise duty stipulated for equivalent imported or domestically manufactured vehicles.'
'Partial or total exemption from excise duty as provided for by the provisions in force at any given time for vehicles imported permanently from non'member countries shall also apply, subject to the same terms and conditions, to the vehicles referred to in Article 75.'
The dispute in the main proceedings and the question referred for a preliminary ruling
'Are civil servants and officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the armed forces, the public security forces and the harbour police corps covered, like other workers, by Article 6 of Council Directive 83/183/EEC and capable of acquiring 'normal residence' in another country where they live for at least 185 days in each calendar year in order to carry out an official task of a definite duration, or do they continue, even during the period of their assignment in the other country, to have their normal residence in Greece, irrespective of whether they have transferred their personal and occupational ties to the other country?'
The questions referred for a preliminary ruling
The applicability of Directive 83/183
The interpretation of Article 6(1) of Directive 83/183
Articles 18 EC and 39 EC
Excise duties such as those at issue in the main proceedings come within the scope of the tax exemption provided for in Article 1(1) of Directive 83/183 where it is established and that is something which it is for the national court to determine that they are normally charged on the permanent importation by a private individual of a vehicle for personal use from another Member State. A special supplementary single payment registration tax such as that at issue in the main proceedings comes within Article 1(1) where it is established and that is something which it is for the national court to determine that it is linked to the actual importation of the vehicle.
Article 6(1) of Directive 83/183 must be interpreted as meaning that an employee in the public service, the armed forces, the public security forces or the harbour police corps of a Member State, who stays for at least 185 days a year in another Member State with the members of his family in order to carry out an official task of a definite duration in that latter State, has, during the period of that task, his normal residence, within the meaning of Article 6(1), in that other Member State.
If, at the conclusion of the national court's investigations, it is established that the taxes at issue in the main proceedings do not come within the scope of the tax exemption provided for by Article 1(1) of Directive 83/183, it will be for the national court, having regard to the requirements arising from Article 39 EC, to determine whether the national provisions governing those taxes are such as to ensure that a person who, in the context of a transfer of residence, imports a vehicle into his Member State of origin is not placed in a less favourable position in connection with those taxes than that of other persons living permanently in that Member State and, if so, whether such a difference in treatment is justified by objective considerations that are independent of the residence of the persons concerned and proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued by national law.
Costs
On those grounds, the Court (Fourth Chamber) hereby rules:
Excise duties such as those at issue in the main proceedings come within the scope of the tax exemption provided for in Article 1(1) of Council Directive 83/183/EEC of 28 March 1983 on tax exemptions applicable to permanent imports from a Member State of the personal property of individuals, as amended by Council Directive 89/604/EEC of 23 November 1989, where it is established and that is something which it is for the national court to determine that they are normally charged on the permanent importation by a private individual of a vehicle for personal use from another Member State. A special supplementary single payment registration tax such as that at issue in the main proceedings comes within Article 1(1) where it is established and that is something which it is for the national court to determine that it is linked to the actual importation of the vehicle.
Article 6(1) of Directive 83/183 must be interpreted as meaning that an employee in the public service, the armed forces, the public security forces or the harbour police corps of a Member State, who stays for at least 185 days a year in another Member State with the members of his family in order to carry out an official task of a definite duration in that latter State, has, during the period of that task, his normal residence, within the meaning of Article 6(1), in that other Member State.
If, at the conclusion of the national court's investigations, it is established that the taxes at issue in the main proceedings do not come within the scope of the tax exemption provided for by Article 1(1) of Directive 83/183, it will be for the national court, having regard to the requirements arising from Article 39 EC, to determine whether the national provisions governing those taxes are such as to ensure that a person who, in the context of a transfer of residence, imports a vehicle into his Member State of origin is not placed in a less favourable position in connection with those taxes than that of other persons living permanently in that Member State and, if so, whether such a difference in treatment is justified by objective considerations that are independent of the residence of the persons concerned and proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued by national law.
[Signatures]
* Language of the case: Greek.