The Noord-Nederland District Court states first and foremost that, according to settled case-law of the ECJ, exemption provisions in the context of VAT must be interpreted strictly, because they constitute derogations from the general principle that VAT is levied on every service provided by a taxable person for consideration ( compare eg ECJ Sequeira Mesquita ). The court also considers that the State Secretary has expressly limited the extension of the exemption provision to the provision of actual maternity care and has explicitly stated that it therefore does not apply to mediation services. In the court’s opinion it follows from the facts that A only provided mediation services towards the maternity care providers.
Source BTW jurisprudentie
