A CJEU judgment concerning whether pension funds qualify as special investment funds eligible for VAT exemption
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on September 5, 2024, held in joined cases C-639/22 to C-644/22 that certain Dutch pension funds may qualify as “special investment funds,” such that management services provided to such funds are exempt from value added tax (VAT), if the amount of pension benefits provided under the pension funds primarily depends on the results of the investments of the pension funds. Moreover, even if a pension fund does not meet this criterion, the fund must be regarded as a special investment fund if the legal and financial position of a unit-holder in that fund is comparable to that of the unit-holders in pension funds with a defined contribution plan.
The CJEU thus rejected a conflicting opinion of the Advocate General of the CJEU issued earlier this year. Read TaxNewsFlash
The Dutch courts must now apply the tests outlined in the CJEU’s judgment to the pension funds at issue in the case.
Read a September 2024 report prepared by the KPMG member firm in the Netherlands