Staatssecretaris van Financiën v Fiscale Eenheid X

In Staatssecretaris van Financiën v Fiscale Eenheid X (C-595/13) (20 May 2015) the Advocate General opined that the VAT exemption for the management of certain special investment funds can apply to those investing in real estate.

X was a Dutch fiscal entity made up of several companies. One of those companies A provided various services to a company set up by pension funds to invest in real estate. The company did not have any employees; and therefore the services provided by A included the management of the real estate as well as more administrative tasks.  The first issue was whether a company set up to invest in real estate assets could be considered as a special investment fund exempt from VAT (Principal VAT Directive art 13B). The Advocate General thought that this was the case provided that the company was subject to specific state supervision.