VAT briefing for June 2018

Two advocate general (AG) opinions are perhaps the highlight of the VAT month. In both cases the AG has taken the unusual (and sometimes controversial) step of suggesting that the court should resolve the cases before it on a different basis to that indicated by questions referred to it. Whilst this certainly wouldn’t be the first time that the CJEU has taken such an approach (for example the decision in AXA (Case C-175/09) applying the ‘debt collection’ exclusion – coincidentally relevant to another of the cases discussed below) it remains uncommon. Yet despite some 45 years of experience with the VAT system in the UK it is indicative of the fact that determining the correct question to ask is in some cases problematic let...