A CJEU Advocate General opinion concerning pension funds not treated as special investment funds eligible for VAT exemption
The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 14 March 2024 issued an opinion that certain Dutch pension funds did not qualify as “special investment funds” such that management services provided to such funds are exempt from value added tax (VAT).
The cases are the joined cases C-639/22 to C-644/22.
A fund that displays identical characteristics as an “undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities” (UCITS) or is at least sufficiently comparable to be in competition with a UCITS, is also regarded as a special investment fund. However, the Advocate General specifically found that the Dutch pension funds were not sufficiently comparable to UCITSs to be regarded as special investment funds.
In addition, although under guidance of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, pension funds that execute individual defined contributions plans are regarded as special investment funds, the Advocate General found that the Dutch pension funds were not comparable with such pension funds.
Read a March 2024 report [PDF 59 KB] prepared by the KPMG member firm in the Netherlands