European General Court Issues Preliminary Ruling on Belgium VAT Treatment of Non-EU Travel Services

The European General Court (EGC) March 25 issued a preliminary ruling for Case No. T-221/25, on Belgian VAT treatment of travel agent services, for travel outside the EU. The taxpayers, a VAT group of Belgian companies, sought refunds of VAT paid on such non-EU travel services, arguing the services were exempt under amended national law. Upon request for a preliminary ruling, the EGC held that EU Directives 77/388/EEC and 2006/112/EC must be interpreted as meaning that: 1) the directives don’t require a national statutory provision expressly establishing a derogation from the VAT exemption for supplies of services by travel agents ...