Article 4

1. The competent authority of each Member State shall maintain an electronic data base in which it shall store and process the information that it collects in accordance with Article 22 (6) (b) of Directive 77/388/EEC. To allow the use of this information in the procedures provided for in this Regulation the information shall be stored for at least five years after the end of the calendar year in which access to the information was to be granted. Member States shall ensure that their data bases are kept up to date, complete and accurate. Under the procedure laid down in Article 10 criteria shall be defined to determine what amendments that are not significant, material or useful need not be made. 2. From the data collected in accordance with paragraph 1, the competent authority of a Member State shall obtain directly and without delay from each Member State, or may have direct access to, the following information: the value added tax identification numbers issued by the Member State receiving the information, and the total value of all intra-Community supplies of goods made to the persons to whom those numbers were issued by all operators identified for the purposes of value added tax in the Member State providing the information; the values shall be expressed in the currency of the Member State providing the information and shall relate to calendar quarters. 3. From the data collected in accordance with paragraph 1 and solely in order to combat tax fraud, the competent authority of a Member State shall, wherever it considers it necessary for the control of intra-Community acquisitions of goods, obtain directly and without delay, or have direct access to, the following information: the value added tax identification numbers of all persons who have made the supplies referred to in the second indent of paragraph 2, and the total value of such supplies from each such person to each person to whom one of the value added tax identification numbers referred to in the first indent of paragraph 2 has been issued; the values shall be expressed in the currency of the Member State providing the information and shall relate to calendar quarters. 4. Where the competent authority of a Member State is obliged to grant access to information under this Article it shall, as regards the information referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3, do so within three months of the end of the calendar quarter to which the information relates. By way of derogation from this rule, where information is added to a data base in the circumstances provided for in paragraph 1, access to such additions shall be granted as quickly as possible and in any event no more than three months after the end of the quarter in which the additional information was collected; the conditions under which access to the corrected information may be granted shall be defined by means of the procedure laid down in Article 10. 5. Where, for purposes of the application of this Article, the competent authorities of the Member States keep information in electronic data bases and exchange such information by electronic means they shall take all measures necessary to ensure compliance with Article 9.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-10 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.