Value added tax

According to Art 28c(A) of the Sixth VAT Directive (EEC) 77/388, it was for the member states to lay down the conditions for the application of the exemption of intra-Community supplies of goods. It was important to note that in the exercise of their powers the member states should comply with the principles of legal certainty and proportionality. It would have been contrary to the principles of legal certainty if a member state, which had laid down conditions for the application of the exemption of intra-Community supplies, and which had accepted the documents presented by a supplier, could subsequently require that supplier to account for VAT on that supply, where it had transpired that because of the purchaser’s fraud, of which the supplier could have had no knowledge, the goods concerned did not actually leave the territory of the member state of supply.