ECJ case referred re VAT treatment of server room services
The Finnish tax authorities recently referred an important case to the ECJ impacting the scope of services related to immoveable property.
In the case at hand, a Finnish company provided server room services to local and foreign clients. These services included a file cabinet, cleaning, temperature and other services required for the correct use of the server. The question referred to the ECJ by the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court asks if these services should be considered as linked to immoveable property. In a second question, the court requests a more general clarification on whether ´computer centre services´ of this type should be considered as linked to immoveable property. The questions are published in the ECJ website via the following link.
Article 44 of the VAT Directive determines the place of supply on services linked to immoveable property according to the place where the property is located. The scope of this article is subject to frequent discussions about the definition of ´link to immoveable property´. The VAT Committee published Guidelines on the scope of this article and Council implementing regulation (EU) No 1042 / 2013.
This case is important for businesses who provide data centre services, maintenance of these centres and even remote update and support of these centres.