Judgment_paragraph 2 · European Commission v United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (C-582/08)

2Article 17(3) and (4) of Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes – Common system of value added tax: uniform basis of assessment (OJ 1977 L 145, p. 1), as amended by Council Directive 2004/66/EC of 26 April 2004 (OJ 2004 L 168, p. 35) (‘the Sixth Directive’), in the version resulting from Article 28f(1) thereof, provides:3.Member States shall also grant every taxable person the right to the deduction or refund of the [VAT] referred to in paragraph 2 in so far as the goods and services are used for the purposes of:(a) transactions relating to the economic activities referred to in Article 4(2), carried out in another country, which would be deductible if they had been performed within the territory of the country;(b) transactions which are exempt pursuant to Articles 14(1)(g) and (i), 15, 16 (1)(B), (C), (D) or (E) or (2) or 28c(A) and (C);(c) any of the transactions exempt pursuant to Article 13(B)(a) and (d)(1) to (5), when the customer is established outside the Community or when those transactions are directly linked with goods to be exported to a country outside the Community.4.The refund of [VAT] referred to in paragraph 3 shall be effected:— to taxable persons who are not established within the territory of the country but who are established in another Member State in accordance with the detailed implementing rules laid down in Directive 79/1072/EEC,— to taxable persons who are not established within the territory of the Community, in accordance with the detailed implementing rules laid down in Directive 86/560/EEC.…’