CJEU – Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2021

S. 2001. Introduction

This paper is the first of two consecutive papers, which will be dealing with the place of taxable supply. In this paper, two of a total of five cases, concerning the place of taxable supply that were rendered, in the year 2021, will be discussed.

The first decision is the one in case number C-459/19, The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs v. Wellcome Trust Ltd rendered by the Court on the 17^th March 2021. This case revolves around the question whether the requirement that a “taxable person must be acting as such”, set out in Art. 44 of the VAT Directive, must be interpreted in the same way as the same phrase contained in Art. 2(1) of that directive. The issue arose in the context of the place of supply of investment management services received by a charitable organisation for their non-economic business activity from suppliers established outside the European Union, where they were accounting for output VAT in the United Kingdom, under the reverse charge mechanism.

The second case C-7/20, VS v. Hauptzollamt Münster (Lieu de naissance de la TVA), decided on the 3^rd of March 2021, is a case that has a strong linkage to customs law. Namely, it deals with ...