By letter registered with the Commission on 27 September 2011, Romania requested authorisation to introduce special measures concerning certain motorised road vehicles derogating from those provisions laid down in Directive 2006/112/EC which govern a taxable person’s right to deduct VAT paid on the purchase of goods and services and those which require tax to be accounted for on business assets used for non-business purposes.

In accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 395(2) of Directive 2006/112/EC, by letter dated 1 December 2011, the Commission informed the other Member States of the request made by Romania. By letter dated 5 December 2011, the Commission notified Romania that it had all the information necessary to consider the request.

Article 168 of Directive 2006/112/EC establishes a taxable person’s right to deduct VAT charged on supplies of goods and services received by him for the purposes of his taxed transactions. Point (a) of Article 26(1) of that Directive contains a requirement to account for VAT when a business asset is put to use for the private purposes of the taxable person or his staff or, more generally, for purposes other than those of his business.

The non-business use of vehicles is difficult to identify accurately and even where it is possible, the mechanism for doing so is often burdensome. Under the requested measures, the amount of VAT on expenditure eligible for deduction concerning motorised road vehicles which are not used exclusively for business purposes should, with some exceptions, be set at a flat percentage rate. Based on currently available information, Romania believes that a rate of 50 % is justifiable. At the same time, to avoid double taxation, the requirement for accounting for VAT on the non-business use of a motorised road vehicle should be suspended where it has been subject to this restriction. These measures can be justified by the need to simplify the procedure for charging VAT and to prevent evasion through incorrect record-keeping and false tax declaration.

The restriction on the right of deduction under the special measures should apply to VAT paid on the purchase, intra-Community acquisition, importation, hire or leasing of specified motorised road vehicles and on expenditure related thereto, including the purchase of fuel.

Certain types of motorised road vehicles should be excluded from the scope of the special measures since, due to their nature or the type of business they are used for, any non-business use thereof is considered to be negligible. Therefore, the special measures should not apply to vehicles with more than nine seats including the driver’s, or with a maximum permissible laden mass of more than 3 500 kilograms. In addition, a detailed list of specific types of vehicles excluded from that restriction should be provided, based on their particular use.

These derogating measures should be limited in time to allow for an evaluation of their effectiveness and of the appropriate percentage, since the proposed percentage is based on initial findings regarding business use.

Where Romania considers an extension of the derogating measures is necessary, a report on the application of the measures in question, which includes a review of the percentage applied, should be submitted to the Commission together with the request for an extension in a timely manner.

The derogation will have only a negligible effect on the overall amount of tax revenue collected at the stage of final consumption and will have no impact on the Union’s own resources accruing from value added tax,