Opinion of Mr Advocate General da Cruz Vilaça delivered on 24 March 1988

1 Translated from the Portuguese.

2 OJ L 192, 24.7.1985, p. 20.

3 Superseded as from 1 January 1987 by a 1986 order containing the same provisions.

4 The difference derives from the fact that in one case (Article 10) the various requirements are formulated positively as conditions for the grant of the exemption and in the other case (Article 11) they are expressed negatively as conditions for the exemption to be withheld. The English version of the directive also uses two different expressions: in Article 10 (c) subject to the rules and in Article 11 (b) pursuant to the rules. No importance should be attached to this difference of terminology, particularly since it is wholly absent from other versions (for example the French and Iulian language versions).

5 OJ L 145, 13.6.1977, p. 1.

6 See the references given in Karl English, Einfiihrung in das juristische Denken, 4th edition, Kohlhammer Verlag, 1968, pp. 82, 104, 105, 146 and 149 (Portuguese translation of the 13th edition: Introdução ao Pensamento Jurídico, Gulbenkian, 1965, pp. 119, 162 et seq., 239 and 243).

7 See J. M. Cardoso da Costa, Curso de Direito Fisca/, Almedina, 1970, p. 191, note (1) and p. 193, note (2).

8 See J. Oliveira Ascensão, O Direito — introdução e Teoria Geral, Gulbenkian, 1980, p. 373 et seq.

9 See the reference in Kruse, Steuerrecht, I, Munich, 1973, paragraph 8.

10 This follows from the fact that, once again, it is the rules governing the application of VAT (in particular Article 2 of the Sixth Directive, which is necessarily transposed into national legislation) which exclude the levying of taxation in the case of transactions in which no consideration is paid and those carried out by nontaxable persons.

11 In the present case no such distortions would occur if the position was such that the United Kingdom was able to grant the same exemption under Article 28 of the Sixth Directive.

12 OJ C 347, 29.12.1984, p. 3.

13 The official Portuguese translation of the directive is defective at this point.

14 OJ L 331, 27.12.1979, p. 8.

15 OJ L 336, 27.12.1977, p. 15.