Updated decree on the VAT education exemption
The revised decree on the VAT education exemption took effect on 12 February 2025. We work through the changes, from state education to dissertation supervision.
State education is not acting as a public authority
Following the Dutch Supreme Court's 2020 judgment in the Krimpen aan den IJssel case, providing education for consideration by state educational institutions is not acting as a public authority but acting as a taxable person, to which the education exemption can apply. That judgment has been incorporated into the updated decree and affects the pro rata calculations of state institutions. The policy was already known in practice, but is now set down.
The exemption for international, foreign and embassy schools
For mainstream education provided by international, foreign and embassy schools, the Dutch Inspectorate of Education often has no supervisory powers, even though supervision is a condition for the exemption. The State Secretary has included a concession for this. The education still falls within the exemption where it is supervised by a foreign authority or by a recognised international accreditation body listed in Annex 1 to the relevant Dutch regulation on international and foreign schools.
Examinations for admission to or completion of education
The exempt examination services are set out in more detail. They cover activities inherently necessary to administering examinations or organising them, such as developing, setting or marking. The business supplying the examination service must itself qualify as a recognised educational institution, which follows from the Supreme Court's 2021 judgment on examination services. The examination must also serve admission to, or completion of, exempt education.
Recognition by CPION or inclusion in the CRKBO register does not give rise to a legitimate expectation that examinations administered by that business are exempt as well.
Online education and external providers
The concept of education is described more precisely. There is education where a teacher transfers knowledge or imparts skills to pupils, individually or in a group, according to a particular method, provided those activities are not purely recreational. The transfer of knowledge and skills is central.
The knowledge group's position that education provided electronically, remotely or online can count as the transfer of knowledge or skills by a teacher, provided there is scope for interaction between teacher and pupils, has been incorporated into this section.
So has the ruling of the Court of Appeal in The Hague of 9 January 2015, from which it follows that supplies by independent external individuals or organisations delivering activities forming part of the curriculum of mainstream education can also qualify as exempt education. Those supplies must then involve not only organisational aspects but also work qualifying as the provision of education.
Sign language teaching
Language teaching counts as general education where it is not aimed specifically at a particular occupation, and is then exempt. The revised decree treats sign language teaching as a form of language teaching too.
Dissertation supervision
The State Secretary accepts that homework or study support without subject content is exempt. Supervision of a dissertation written in the context of exempt education counts as study support within the meaning of that concession. A text service, meaning purely checking and correcting the text itself, is not covered. The decree does not refer to it, but the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ruled to the same effect last year.