In the legal case A & G Fahrschul-Akademie (C-449/17), the ECJ denied VAT-exemption for driving lessons. Here, the court interpreted the requirements for exempted supplies of commercial education services in accordance with Art. 132 para 1 (i) and (j) of the VAT Directive more strictly than before. The decision is therefore important not only for the driving school sector but for all providers of commercial educational service supplies.

It could be that Brexit will take place in less than 2 weeks. It is also possible that Great Britain’s departure from the EU will be an unregulated one. The British legislator has therefore made initial preparations to ensure that a functioning VAT law will continue to exist as from 30.03.2019 in the instance of this worst-case scenario. Unfortunately, many issues, especially for foreign taxable persons, remain unresolved.

According to Art. 53 of the VAT Directive, the place of a supply of services, in terms of admission to events supplied to a taxable person, is the place where those events actually take place. However, the question remains as to which type of events are covered by this rule. The ECJ dealt with this in the case Srf konsulterna, which concerned courses for accounting, management and payroll consultants. Unsurprisingly, the ECJ favoured a rather broad interpretation. The extensive statements of the Advocate General regarding this case are also of particular interest. The German tax authorities may take this opportunity to adjust the relevant explanations as contained in the German VAT Circular.