Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2022:131
Date: 2022-02-24
Language of the case: Swedish
Subject matter: Taxation;Value added tax
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Sweden

summary of which is available in English under the title ‘Supply of City Card – Entrance to attractions – Supply of a service or not’, on the IBFD database. 17 Article 2 of that directive states that its provisions apply from 1 January 2019. 18 VAT Committee, ‘VAT Treatment of “city cards”’, Information Paper, 3 April 2019, p. 8. 19 Ibid, p. 5. 20 For further discussion on the distinction between vouchers and instruments of payment, see points 45 and 53 of the present Opinion. 21 For such an account, see Amand, C., ‘Vouchers: une directive TVA européenne applicable à partir de 2019’, La semaine fiscale, No 277, 20‑26 March 2017, p. 2. 22 See, to that effect, the recent judgment of 9 November 2021, Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Retention of family unity) (C‑91/20, EU:C:2021:898, paragraphs 49 and 52). 23 Amand, C., ‘EU Value Added Tax: The Directive on Vouchers in the Light of the General Value Added Tax Rules’, p. 156, see footnote 10 above. 24 Amand, C., ‘EU Value Added Tax: The Directive on Vouchers in the Light of the General Value Added Tax Rules’, see footnote 10 above; Bijl, J.B.O, The EU Vat Treatment of Vouchers in the Context of Promotional Activities, Deventer, Wolters Kluwer, 2019, p. 276. 25 The original proposal, however, contained a specific category of ‘discount voucher’ in addition to ‘single-purpose voucher’ and ‘multi-purpose voucher’. See, recital 5, as well as Article 25(e) and Article 30a(1), of the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax, as regards the treatment of vouchers (COM(2012) 206 final – 2012/0102 (CNS)). 26 Ibid. 27 For a similar reading of the outcome of the legislative procedure, see Terra, B.J.M.; Kajus, J., Commentary on EU VAT , 2020, ‘7.3.1.5.1.1. Definition of a voucher’. 28 Terra, B.J.M., Terra, E.T., ‘The value of the voucher directive on the EU VAT treatment of vouchers’, World Journal of VAT/GST Law, 2017, 27-34, p. 28. 29 For a non-exhaustive list of European cities offering such cards and of their content, see https://welovecitycards.com/. 30 The circumstance that the VAT Committee could not reach an umbrella conclusion on the matter of the VAT treatment of city cards supports that point. VAT Committee, Working Paper No 987, Minutes’, 2 December 2019, p. 5. 31 Recital 6 of the 2016 Directive. 32 If the voucher is not redeemed at all, that is if the holder does not start using it at all during the period in which its use can be initiated, then the provisions on vouchers do not apply. That follows from recital 12 of the 2016 Directive, which reads: ‘This Directive does not target the situations where a multi-purpose voucher is not redeemed by the final consumer during its validity period, and the consideration received for such voucher is kept by the seller’. 33 See point 44 of the present Opinion. 34 Bijl, J.B.O, The EU Vat Treatment of Vouchers in the Context of Promotional Activities, see footnote 24 above. 35 Drozdowska, M. Duda-Seifert, M., and Faron, A., ‘Model of a city destination card as a marketing tool of selected European cities’, Management Sciences, 2018, vol. 23, No 2, pp. 19‑28. 36 Ibid, p. 27. 37 Tickets themselves could possibly be regarded as vouchers. Some literature acknowledges that it is difficult to distinguish a single-purpose voucher (SPV) from a ticket (Amand, C., ‘EU Value Added Tax: The Directive on Vouchers in the Light of the General Value Added Tax Rules’, p. 154, see footnote 10 above; and Terra, B.J.M., Terra, E.T., ‘The value of the voucher directive on the EU VAT treatment of vouchers’, World Journal of VAT/GST Law, 2017, p. 30). The same authors suggest, mainly following the Court’s judgment of 23 December 2015, Air France-KLM and Hop!-Brit Air (C‑250/14 and C‑289/14, EU:C:2015:841)), and the wording of recital 5 of the 2016 Directive, that tickets are not vouchers. That, however, is not an issue relevant for the present reference. 38 Emphasis added. 39 van Doesum, A., van Kesteren, H., van Norden, Fundamentals of EU VAT Law, Alphen aan den Rijn, Wolters Kluwer, 2016, p. 246. 40 The issuer of the card pays for each supply of goods and services actually supplied, and the price of such supplies also includes VAT (unless the service is exempt). The issuer cannot deduct the VAT included in that price as its input tax. 41 Which, in my opinion, shows many similarities with the facts of the main proceedings. On that point, see judgment of 13 October 2005, ISt (C‑200/04, EU:C:2005:608). 42 See, point 32 of the present Opinion and the literature cited. 43 On that account, see footnote 16 of the present Opinion. 44 See my Opinion in GE Aircraft Engine Services Ltd, (Case C‑607/20, EU:C:2022:63, delivered on 27 January 2022, point 53). 45 See points 29 and 32 of the present Opinion. 46 Recital 5 of the 2016 Directive.