AG CJEU in BlackRock VAT case: a single fund management service is in principle not partially exempt from VAT

Source Meijburg

Unofficial translation in English

On 11 March 2020, Advocate General (‘A-G’) Pikamäe of the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) delivered his Opinion in BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited (‘BlackRock’, Case C- 231/19).

The question in this case is whether a single service purchased by BlackRock can be split so that part of the fee for that service is exempt from VAT under the fund management exemption, while the other part is treated as VAT taxed. BlackRock argues that such a split should be made based on whether the purchased service is used to manage a mutual fund (VAT exempt) or a non-mutual fund (VAT tax).

The AG concludes that a single service can in principle only have one VAT treatment and that the fund management exemption does not apply to the service purchased by BlackRock. This may be different if sufficient information is available to determine precisely and objectively what part of the fee relates to VAT-exempt services.

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