Belgian osteopaths exempted from VAT retroactively, according to Court of Justice

• Osteopathie Van Hauwermeiren in Belgium has been exempt from VAT since January 1, 2006.
• The Belgian Constitutional Court ruled on December 5, 2019, that osteopaths provide exempt services.
• The court also used a special law to maintain the effects of the invalidated provision for taxable events before October 1, 2019.
• Osteopathie Van Hauwermeiren believes that the ruling of the Constitutional Court should be disregarded due to its inconsistency with EU law.
• They argue that they are entitled to a refund of the VAT they paid before October 1, 2019.
• The referring court has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling on this matter.
• The CJEU states that a national court cannot apply a national provision that it has declared incompatible with the VAT Directive, on the grounds that it is allegedly impossible to refund incorrectly collected VAT to the recipients of the services provided by a taxable person.

Source: nlfiscaal.nl

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.

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