26In particular, as the Advocate General pointed out in point 45 of his Opinion, Article 5(7)(a) of the Sixth Directive allowed Member States to develop their tax law in such a way that businesses which, owing to the fact that they are engaged in an activity which is exempt from VAT, cannot deduct the VAT that they have paid on acquiring their business goods are not placed at a disadvantage as compared with competitors engaged in the same activity who use goods which they have obtained without paying VAT, by producing the goods themselves or, more generally, by obtaining them ‘in the course of [their] business’. In order to make those competitors subject to the same tax burden as businesses which have acquired their goods from a third party, Article 5(7)(a) of the Sixth Directive gave Member States the option of treating the application, for the purposes of the exempt activities of the business, of goods obtained in the course of business as a supply of goods made for consideration within the meaning of Article 2(1) and Article 5(1) of the Sixth Directive, and of making that application subject to VAT.
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