In United Biscuits (Pensions Trustees) Ltd and United Biscuits Pension Investments Ltd v HMRC (Case C-235/19) (14 May 2020) the CJEU held that the term ‘insurance transactions’ within article 13(B)(a) of the Sixth Directive and its successor Directive 2006/112/EC article 135(1)(a) did not cover pension fund management.
The appellants (U) were trustees of defined benefit pension funds. They received services of pension fund management from providers some of whom were authorised to conduct insurance business and some of whom were not (but were authorised to provide pension fund management services). During the relevant period HMRC treated supplies of pension fund management as exempt but only where the supplier was authorised to conduct insurance business. U argued that the principles of equality and neutrality required such supplies to be treated as exempt regardless of the need for any authorisation. The High Court had held...
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