Pourquoi la Commission européenne s’engage-t-elle à moderniser les règles de TVA concernant les services financiers et d’assurance

Abstract

Why does the European Commission commit itself to modernizing the VAT rules on financial and insurance services ? Because of developments since the 1970s in the financial and insurance markets, the European VAT rules relating to these services have become obsolete. Moreover, the resulting uncertainty gives rise to increasingly divergent interpretation across Member States. This causes distortions in the Single Market and breaches as the fundamental principle of tax neutrality in VAT. The European Court of Justice is frequently asked to interpret the obsolete provisions on a case by case basis in order to fill the gap created by the failure to update the legislation. This situation is not sustainable. Having completed a wide-ranging public consultation in the first part of 2006, the Commission plans to submit in 2007 a legislative proposal to the Council of the European Union in order to modernize all these rules. JEL classification : G2, K34