argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: EU transactions - VAT - sale of goods and trasport

On 18 June 2020, with the ruling given in case C-276/18, the E.U. Court of Justice offered some insights on the issue of distance selling and the criteria of connection between transfer and transport. Taking into account that the VAT enforcement mechanism is based on the principle of taxation in the place where consumption is reasonably expected (art.138 and 10th and 11th recital of Directive 2006/112/CE) in compliance with the so-called principle “Only once”, according to which the taxation of the intra-E.U. assignment is guaranteed in one or the other State thus avoiding conflicts of jurisdiction from which a double taxation may arise according to the Court, a supply of goods falls within the scope of application of art. 33 of the VAT Directive if the role of the supplier is predominant as regards the initiative as well as the organization of the essential stages of the shipment or transportation of the goods. In light of these principles, it is therefore necessary to research the criteria of absolute practical relevance that allow economic operators to establish, with reasonable certainty, whether the transport is connected to the intra-E.U. transfer with the consequent taxation of the transaction at destination, instead of, in the case of separation between the two operations, with the withdrawal of the sale in the country of the supplier.