The MBA courses provided by Danish public universities are still subject to Danish VAT. The tax authorities wanted to challenge the VAT exemption on these additional educational services on the basis that the learning was not part of the legal state school, university or education system (article 132(1)(i) of the EU VAT Directive (2006/112)). This clause in the EU VAT Directive does not include additional tuition with primarily commercial aims.
The University in question provided the MBA course in addition to undergraduate education and degrees. It also offered educational services to students of foreign educational establishments. The Board found that the course was not part of the Danish educational system, and the University was under no obligation to provide it under its Charter. Nor did it receive state funding to do so.
