The European Commission has formally requested the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden to change their legislation on the VAT exemption for postal services which are not compatible with the VAT Directive.

The United Kingdom and Germany exempt from VAT all or most postal services supplied by their former postal monopolies. Sweden does not exempt postal services. The current EU requests take the form of a reasoned opinion, which is the second step in infringement proceedings. In April 2006, the Commission sent letters of formal notice to these Member States. Apparently however, their replies were not considered satisfactory.

Other infringement proceedings of various types involved:

Sweden – income tax on non-residents, and capital gains tax

Poland – taxation treatment of electricity not apparently in compliance with the energy tax directive

Austria, Germany, Italy, Finland – discriminatory treatment of outbound dividends

Germany – over a differing treatment between domestic and foreign trust-type entities known as family foundations.