Article 16 Sixth Directive 77/388/EEC

1.Without prejudice to other Community provisions, Member States may, subject to the consultations provided for in Article 29, take special measures designed to relieve from value added tax all or some of the following transactions, provided that they are not aimed at final use and/or consumption and that the amount of value added tax charged at entry for home use corresponds to the amount of the tax which should have been charged had each of these transactions been taxed on import or within the territory of the country:

A. imports of goods which are intended to be placed under warehousing arrangements other than customs;

B. supplies of goods which are intended to be

a) produced to customs and, where applicable, placed in temporary storage;

b) placed in a free zone or in a free warehouse;

c) placed under customs warehousing arrangements or inward processing arrangements;

d) admitted into territorial waters:

—in order to be incorporated into drilling or production platforms, for purposes of the construction, repair, maintenance, alteration or fitting-out of such platforms, or to link such drilling or production platforms to the mainland,

—for the fuelling and provisioning of drilling or production platforms;

e) placed under warehousing arrangements other than customs.

The places referred to in (a), (b), (c) and (d) shall be as defined by the Community customs provisions in force;

C. supplies of services relating to the supplies of goods referred to in B;

D. supplies of goods and of services carried out in the places listed in B and still subject to one of the arrangements specified therein;

E. supplies:

—of goods referred to in Article 7 (1) (a) still subject to arrangements for temporary importation with total exemption from import duty or to external transit arrangements,

—of goods referred to in Article 7 (1) (b) still subject to the internal Community transit procedure provided for in Article 33a,

as well as supplies of services relating to such supplies.

2.Subject to the consultation provided for in Article 29, Member States may opt to exempt imports for and supplies of goods to a taxable person intending to export them as they are or after processing, as well as supplies of services linked with his export business, up to a maximum equal to the value of his exports during the preceding 12 months.

3.The Commission shall submit to the Council at the earliest opportunity proposals concerning common arrangements for applying value added tax to the transactions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2.