VAT on Acquisition and Leaseback of Movable Property: Separate Transactions, No Financial Service Exemption

Transactions involving the sale of movable property followed by its lease back to the seller raise VAT classification questions.
Polish courts and tax authorities determined that such transactions consist of two separate services: sale and lease, each requiring independent VAT treatment.
The referenced CJEU (TSUE) judgment (Mydibel S.A.) does not apply, as the analyzed case involves different contractual and financial arrangements.
The transaction is not considered a financial service exempt from VAT, nor a single complex service, but two distinct taxable activities.
Both the tax authority and the courts rejected the company’s position, confirming that VAT applies separately to the sale and the lease.

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.