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	United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals Decisions >> RCI Europe v Revenue & Customs [2008] UKVAT V20629 (09 January 2008) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKVAT/2008/V20629.html Cite as: [2008] UKVAT V20629

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20629

LONDON TRIBUNAL CENTRE Reference No: LON/2005/0490

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Appellant/Applicant

Respondents

RCI EUROPE Appellant

- and -

THE COMMISSIONERS FOR HER MAJESTY'S REVENUE AND CUSTOMS Respondents

Tribunal: DR DAVID WILLIAMS (Chairman)

Sitting in private in London on 10 December 2007

DIRECTION

UPON hearing the joint application of the parties to this appeal for a reference to the Court of Justice of the European Communities ("the Court of Justice")

UPON hearing Melanie Hall QC, counsel for the Appellant and Tim Eicke, counsel for the Respondents

AND UPON finding that, in order to enable the Tribunal to give judgment in this case, it is necessary to resolve certain questions concerning the interpretation of European Community law and that it is appropriate to request the Court of Justice to give a preliminary ruling thereon

THE TRIBUNAL DIRECTS that:

1. The questions set out in the Schedule annexed to this direction concerning the interpretation of the Sixth Council Directive of 17 May 1977 77/388/EC on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes - common system of value added tax; uniform basis of assessment (now the Recast VAT Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax) be referred to the Court of Justice for preliminary ruling under Article 234 of the EC treaty (those questions being repeated for convenience in the separate annex to this direction containing only the questions referred);
2. All further proceedings in this appeal be stayed until after the Court of Justice has given its ruling on the said questions or until further direction;
3. The tribunal note that the parties agree that it is not necessary to wait for the time to appeal against this direction to expire and that the direction can, therefore, be conveyed to the Court of Justice forthwith;
5. There be liberty to apply on all aspects of these matters to the parties; and
6. The costs of this direction be costs in the appeal; and
7. This direction, and the separate annex setting out the questions to be referred are to be published. The annex including the Schedule is not to be published without further direction of the tribunal.
D WILLIAMS Chairman Release Date: 9 January 2008 ANNEX

THE QUESTIONS TO BE REFERRED

1 In the context of the services supplied by the Appellant for:

- the enrolment fee;

- the subscription fee; and

the exchange fee paid by members of the Appellant's Weeks Scheme, what are the factors to be considered when determining whether the services are "connected with" immovable property within the meaning of Article 9(2)(a) of the Sixth VAT Directive (now Article 45 of the Recast VAT Directive)?

2 If any or all of the services supplied by the Appellant are "connected with" immovable property within the meaning of Article 9(2)(a) of the Sixth VAT Directive (now Article 45 of the Recast VAT Directive), is the immovable property with which each or all of the services are connected the immovable property deposited into the pool, or the immovable property requested in exchange for the deposited immovable property, or both of these properties?

3 If any of the services are "connected with" both immovable properties, how are the services to be classified under the Sixth VAT Directive (now the Recast VAT Directive)?

4 In light of the divergent solutions found by different Member States how does the Sixth VAT Directive (now the Recast VAT Directive) characterise the "exchange fee" income of a taxable person received for the following supplies:

- facilitating the exchange of holiday usage rights held by one member of a scheme run by the taxable person for the holiday usage rights held by another member of that scheme; and / or

- supplying usage rights in accommodation purchased by the taxable person from taxable third parties to supplement the pool of accommodation available to members of that scheme.