Following the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruling against the Wheels Common Investment Fund (WCIF) last week, Richard Asquith, head of VAT at TMF Group, said the key difference between a number of VAT lawsuits brought by pension funds to the EU court lied in the structure of the schemes themselves. "While in the case of a DB scheme the final pension is pre-determined in advance, and the risk stays with the employer, DC plans are all about individual employees and the risk they bear, since their pensions sorely depend on the performance of the fund."
The CJEU ruled that UK workplace defined benefit (DB) pension funds were not special investment funds and therefore not exempt from paying VAT on investment management services.
Asquith argued that, in the event that the CJEU were to hand down a positive ruling in the PPG case, all EU Member States would need to comply with the decision and exempt DC schemes from VAT.
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