In Joined Cases C-639/22 to C-644/22 (5 September) the CJEU held that for the VAT fund management exemption to apply benefits and entitlements provided to pension fund members must depend primarily on the investment results of the fund.
The cases concerned several Dutch pension funds. These funds purchased asset management services and argued that those services should have fallen within the exemption for ‘special investment funds’ (SIFs) in Article 135(1)(g) of the EU VAT Directive. The features of the pension funds varied. However simplistically the amount of rights and benefits derived by members did not depend directly on investment performance but there were elements of the rights and benefits that did.
It has long been established that there are limits to the discretion of member states to decide what kinds of fund benefit from exemption. Those funds subject to the EU regulatory framework known as UCITS are SIFs. In...
