News - tax cases

Charitable childcare

The claimant a non-profit making organisation in the Netherlands provided childcare for pre-school children and also acted as an intermediary between people who offered to look after children in their homes and parents who wished their children to be looked after by host parents. The Dutch tax authority said that the claimant was not exempt from VAT for its services as an intermediary. The claimant appealed and the issue was referred to the European Court of Justice.
The court said that the childcare provided by the host parents to which the claimant was linked as intermediary was capable of coming within the exemption. It was also clear that the foundation was a charitable one. However to qualify for exemption the hosts had to fulfil the exemption's conditions. They were independent persons who could not be governed by public law but...