According to the German tax courts, swimming lessons have, at least to date, undoubtedly fallen within the scope of the Union law VAT exemption as constituting part of “school and university tuition”. The ECJ, however, recently restricted the VAT exemption for the commercial supply of tuition services by defining the term “tuition” much more narrowly. This case law has now led to the Federal Fiscal Court raising doubts and referring three questions to the ECJ. The referral shows that the VAT exemption for the supply of commercial tuition services can currently not be determined with any significant degree of legal certainty.