The Council held a policy debate on proposals for a directive and a regulation aimed at clarifying the rules on the VAT treatment of insurance services and other financial services. The Commission's proposals set out:

• to clarify the definitions of exempt services, thereby increasing legal certainty for both economic operators and national tax administrations;
• to give economic operators (rather than the member states, as is currently the case) the right to opt for taxation instead of remaining within the VAT exemption;
• to allow economic operators to pool VAT-exempt investments.

The Council agreed that work should be pursued as a priority on the modernisation of the definitions of exempt services.

The Permanent Representatives Committee has been asked to oversee further work on the proposals, taking account of the views expressed by delegations. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/117790.pdf