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Education and vocational training EU VAT case law

8 cases of the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union on this point of VAT law, from 2010 to 2022.

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Under each case, what the Court decided, from its summary. The summaries are AI-generated and are not official documents: open the case for the Court’s own text.

C-612/20 Happy Education

Judgment · 28 April 2022 · Romania

Recognition of private after-school providers as bodies with similar objects

Article 132(1)(i) sets two cumulative conditions, on the nature of the supply and on the supplier. Member States have a discretion, subject to fiscal neutrality, to fix the conditions for recognition. An entity that does not meet those national conditions (here, no partnership with an educational establishment) is not a recognised organisation with similar objects, and neither the public interest nature of the activity nor a trade register authorisation under CAEN code 8559 changes that. The first question therefore did not need answering. Private tutoring, homework club and after-school operators cannot rely on the education exemption merely because their activity looks educational or their company registration mentions education.

C-373/19 Dubrovin & Tröger - Aquatics

Judgment · 21 October 2021 · Germany

Swimming tuition and the education exemption

The concept of school or university education does not cover swimming tuition provided by a swimming school. Although such tuition is important and in the general interest, it is specialised tuition given occasionally and does not involve the transfer, furthering and development of knowledge and skills across a wide and diversified set of subjects that characterises an integrated education system. The general interest in the subject matter is irrelevant. The remaining questions on recognised bodies and legal form were not answered. Confirms the A & G Fahrschul-Akademie line and extends it beyond driving and sailing schools.

C-47/19 Finanzamt Hamburg-Barmbek-Uhlenhorst

Order · 7 October 2019 · Germany

Surfing and sailing tuition is not school education for the exemption

Ruling by reasoned order, the Court answered both questions in the negative. School or university education for these purposes means an integrated system of transferring knowledge and skills covering a wide and diversified set of subjects, not specialised tuition given on a single sport, however it is treated by the receiving institution. Nor is such tuition closely linked to the protection of children and young persons, and the fact that it is given in the context of a class trip makes no difference. Consistent with Haderer and Werner and later confirmed by Dubrovin & Tröger for swimming schools.

C-449/17 A & G Fahrschul-Akademie

Judgment · 14 March 2019 · Germany

Driving school tuition and the education exemption

The concept does not cover motor vehicle driving tuition provided by a driving school for category B and C1 licences. Although the exemptions must not be read so narrowly as to lose their effect, the concept refers to an integrated system transferring knowledge and skills across a wide and diversified set of subjects, with progression and specialisation. Driving tuition, however much practical and theoretical content it has, remains specialised tuition. The remaining questions were not answered. Driving schools across the EU must treat tuition as taxable, whatever their national accreditation and whether they trade as companies or sole traders.

C-699/15 Brockenhurst College

Judgment · 4 May 2017 · United Kingdom

Training restaurant and student performances as supplies closely related to education

Such activities may be exempt as closely related to the principal supply of education, provided they are supplied by a qualifying body, are essential to the students' education (without them the education would not be of equivalent value), and their basic purpose is not to obtain additional income through transactions in direct competition with commercial enterprises liable for VAT. Here the limited public, booking thresholds and below-cost pricing pointed away from competition. The national court must verify these conditions. Confirms that the "closely related" exemption is not confined to supplies consumed by the students themselves.

C-319/12 MDDP

Judgment · 28 November 2013 · Poland

Exemption for commercial providers of education and the right to deduct

A profit-making aim does not itself bar exemption. Private bodies may qualify. But point (i) of Article 132(1) precludes a general exemption of all educational services irrespective of the provider's objects, which must be similar to those of public law bodies. A taxable person cannot both enjoy the exemption and deduct. It may, however, rely on the Directive to disapply the exemption, and then deduct, only where it could not objectively be regarded as having similar objects, a matter for the national court. Relevant to private training providers, language schools and vocational operators in Member States whose law exempts education by category rather than by provider status.

C-79/09 Commission v Netherlands

Judgment · 25 March 2010 · Netherlands

Structural staff secondment as a closely related supply, and the burden of proof in infringement actions

The action was dismissed in full. Whether a supply of staff is temporary or structural is not in itself decisive. What matters is whether it is an end in itself or a means of better enjoying the principal exempt service. The Commission had produced no evidence on that point, nor on the Horizon College conditions, nor that the public bodies acted under the same legal conditions as private traders, nor that any distortion of competition was real rather than hypothetical. Confirmation that duration is not the test for a closely related supply. Relevant to exempt sector employers using shared or joint employment arrangements, and to public bodies seconding officials to cross-border cooperation structures.

C-473/08 Eulitz

Judgment · 28 January 2010 · Germany

Tuition given privately by teachers, courses run by a third party institute

The services can constitute tuition covering school or university education. No distinction is drawn between initial schooling and later professional training built on an existing degree. Activities other than teaching qualify only where carried out essentially within the transmission of knowledge and skills between teacher and pupils, a matter for the national court. However, tuition is not given "privately" where the teacher acts within courses organised by a third party which runs the training establishment. Independence for VAT taxable person purposes is not enough. Freelance trainers, examiners and course leaders supplying their services to colleges, institutes and professional training providers cannot rely on the private tuition exemption, however self-employed they are under national law.

Related topics

Exemptions · Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest · Right of deduction · Hospital and medical care · Welfare and social security work · Bodies governed by public law · Treatment as a non-taxable person · Proof