Unoffical translation
In a recent judgment, the Lyon Administrative Court of Appeal recalled the conditions allowing exemption from VAT for disbursements (CAA Lyon, June 17, 2021, n ° 19LY02303).
The facts
As part of an accounting audit, a hotel was subject to a VAT adjustment. The tax administration accuses the hotel of offering its customers, exempt from VAT, a concierge service consisting in particular of the reservation of ski lessons and the purchase of ski lift passes. He collected the price before repaying the amount to the providers of these services while retaining a flat-rate commission of 3%. The tax administration subjects these commissions to VAT on the grounds that they remunerated a management service for payments made on behalf of these service providers.
The administrative court of Grenoble rejects in its judgment of April 19, 2019 the hotel’s request to relieve it of VAT reminders and increases. The hotel appealed to the Lyon CAA.
The Lyon CAA judgment
The CAA maintains that these concierge services are not an end in themselves for customers, but a means of benefiting under better conditions from the main hotel service. It is therefore an ancillary service to the main service and not an independent and distinct service. Thus, the flat-rate commission retained by the applicant company must be subject to VAT in the same way as the hotel service.
Finally, the hotel does not meet the formal conditions allowing exemption from VAT on disbursements (article 2 ° of II of article 267 of the CGI). In particular, commissions received are not entered in transit accounts (class 4 accounts), but in 627 accounts.
Source Legifiscal
