Comments on ECJ C-249/22: Austria may levy VAT in connection with public broadcasting activities

• BM, a broadcast subscriber registered with GIS, applied for reimbursement of VAT it had paid on programme fees.
• However, the application was rejected as the Austrian court deemed it different from the Český rozhlas case due to the existence of a civil-law contractual relationship between the broadcaster and subscriber under Austrian law.
• The programmes are encoded and require a receiving module, which creates a legal relationship between the subscriber and broadcasting organisation.
• Prior to EU accession, Austrian tax law allowed VAT to be levied on services supplied by broadcasting companies that collected licence fees.
• The CJEU ruled that Austria can subject to VAT an activity of the public service broadcaster financed by a mandatory statutory fee and paid for by any person with a radio or television set in the terrestrial broadcasting area, regardless of whether it falls under ‘services supplied for consideration’.

Source BTW jurisprudentie

See also

• C-249/22 (Gebühren Info Service GmbH (GIS)) – Judgment – VAT can be imposed on a public broadcasting activity

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