Tax & Legal

In a most recently published decision, the Supreme Tax Court commented on the VAT situation regarding membership fees for non-profit sports clubs and held that they may be subject to VAT. However, it must be verified whether the sports club provides its members with a single service or several separate services, and whether this constitutes a tax-exempt transaction or one subject to VAT.

Abandoning its previous case law, the Supreme Tax Court held that sports clubs cannot invoke a general VAT exemption based on the EU VAT Directive. Due to the result of an earlier ruling by the ECJ which was initiated by the Supreme Tax Court, the relevant Article 132(1)(m) of the VAT Directive 2006/112 does not a priori extend to all sports-related services provided by nonprofit organizations.

The ECJ held that Article 132(1)(m) of Council Directive 2006/112/EC exempting ‘the supply of certain services closely linked to the practice of sport or physical education’ is not being of direct effect and cannot be directly invoked before the national (local) courts. It is for the national court to determine in detail what kind of services provided by sports clubs are exempt from VAT.