CJEU – Recent Developments in Value Added Tax 2016

S. 141VAT Grouping – Consequences of Nigl and Follow-up on Skandia America

Sebastian Pfeiffer

1. S. 142Introduction

Over the last few years, the CJEU has issued a number of judgments with regard to VAT grouping. In these judgments, a number of questions have been raised regarding the scope of application of Art. 11 of the VAT Directive. In 2014, the case Skandia America was decided which dealt with the interaction between VAT grouping and the out-of-scope character of services between head offices and branches under the FCE Bank criteria.Skandia America is still debated in academic literature and at the EU level. In 2015, Larentia + Minerva was decided and dealt with the German VAT grouping system. In 2016, there was a case which could have been about VAT grouping but ultimately was not. In the case, Nigl, the referring Austrian court wanted to know, whether the organizational format known as a civil law partnership (Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts) should be treated as one single taxable person in the light of the very special circumstances of the underlying case. The question of VAT grouping was raised in the proceedings but was not picked up by the CJEU. Therefore, this paper will firstly dis...