The Eu Vat System And The Internal Market

This thesis focuses upon VAT in the context of the Community's internal market. Its central aim is to prove that the current EU VAT system is incompatible with the concept of internal market as set out in the EC Treaty and interpreted by the Court of Justice. The study commences with an analysis of the concept of internal market, the main objective of which is to establish the basic legal framework for the proposed thesis. As part of this examination, it is demonstrated that the EC Treaty creates a temporally unlimited obligation for the Community to approve legislation with the aim of establishing and improving the functioning of the internal market. By analysis of existing EU VAT jurisprudence, it is argued that obstacles cannot be overcome through incremental developments emerging from the Court of Justice, but can only be resolved by fundamental and substantive legislative amendment.