taxud/2414/08 - European Commission - Europa

insurance or financial service or whether he must use additional means; such services are
similar to credit rating;
2. For the purposes of Article 135(1a) of Directive 2006/112/EC, the following shall
not be considered to have the specific and essential character of an exempt service:
(a)
safekeeping;
Safekeeping consists of logistic storing services; these are mere physical, technical and
administrative service, which do not alter the legal or financial situation;
(b)
administrative tasks;
Such services involve handling activities 16 such as the acceptance of applications for
insurances and financial services, the setting and paying of commission to mediators, the
organisation and management of information technology, the supply of information and
the drafting of reports for contract parties; they include services like sending out of
documentation to policy- and contract holders, record policy and contract as well as
client details in systems and dealing with policy and contract holder queries or queries of
economic operators participating in the exempt supply; such services are mere material
or technical supplies which do not change the legal or financial situation;
(c)
debt collection or recovery;
Debt collection and recovery are services which are usually but not exclusively supplied
to the suppliers of exempt insurance services, typically in situations where the client or
the debtor of these exempt services does not fully comply with his payment obligations
or has become illiquid; in such cases the supplier of the exempt insurance or financial
services in default, for example the grantor of a credit, remains in the creditor's position;
such services are mere material or technical supplies which do not change the legal or
financial situation between the supplier and the client of the exempt financial or
insurance services;
(d)
legal services, accountancy, audit and bookkeeping;
Legal services are services for the legal and/or fiscal advice and consultation;
accountancy services are services for the measurement, disclosure or provision of
assurance about financial information primarily used by managers and other decision
makers to make resource allocation decisions within companies or organisations; bookkeeping
is the recording of all financial transactions undertaken by an individual or
organisation;
(e)
services relating to regulatory compliance;
16 Judgement of the Court of 3 March 2005 (Case C-472/03) Arthur Andersen
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