A question was referred to the ECJ by the Supreme Court of Poland in respect of VAT on educational services. The Advocate General has now issued an opinion on the case, which is however not binding on the ECJ which will issue its decision at a later date.

The Advocate General concluded that the European VAT Directive should be interpreted in a way that does not prevent an exemption from VAT on educational services provided by commercial bodies that are not regulated by public law. However these Articles of the VAT directive exclude the possibility of providing an exemption in domestic law that is not qualified by reference to a requirement that the educational services have a similar objective to the equivalent services provided by public bodies.

The Advocate General has also opined that if domestic law is not compatible with the EU Directive taxpayers do not have the right to apply deduct input tax as well as applying the exemption.