- Belgium abolished VAT exemption for online gambling other than lotteries in July 2016
- Constitutional Court annulled this in March 2018, but effect was maintained until May 2018
- CJEU considered differentiation between online lotteries and other online gambling
- Fiscal neutrality precludes treating similar goods and services differently for VAT purposes
- CJEU set out indicators to determine if services are similar, including cultural factors and chances of winning
- Lotteries are different from other forms of gambling as they are solely determined by chance
- Differences in treatment between online and offline gambling may be compatible with fiscal neutrality
- National courts must disapply provisions incompatible with EU law, including VAT Directive
- Taxpayers must be refunded VAT paid in breach of EU law, subject to unjust enrichment.
Source: taxscape.deloitte.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
