Presented to the Council of Ministers on 14 November 2012, the primary aim of the third amending finance bill for 2012 is to "combat tax fraud and prevent abusive tax optimisation schemes". However, the bill also aims to bring French law into line with EU law, particularly as regards property VAT.
Wishing to draw the consequences of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the 'Slaby' and 'Kuc' cases on the concept of a taxable person for VAT purposes, the government is proposing to abolish VAT on the sale of property acquired by private individuals as building land.
At present, the sale by a private individual of a new property (completed less than five years ago) that he or she had previously acquired as a building, i.e. as part of a sale in a future state of completion (VEFA) or a forward sale, was subject to VAT. At the same time, the purchaser benefited from preferential treatment by paying reduced registration fees, often referred to as reduced notary fees.
Article 23 of the draft third amending finance law for 2012 therefore proposes to abolish this VAT taxation. This proposal, if adopted, should apply from the entry into force of the law.