VAT treatment of education and vocational training

By way of background, before Finance Act 2015, para. 4(3) of Schedule 1 of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010 (VATCA 2010) provided that the following were exempt from VAT:

“The provision by educational establishments recognised by the State of children’s or young people’s education, school or university education, or vocational training or retraining (including the supply of goods and services incidental to that provision, other than the supply of research services), and the provision by other persons of education, training or retraining of a similar kind…”

To reflect judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Finance Act 2015 amended the above VAT exemption to:

“The provision by a recognised body of children’s or young people’s education, school or university education, or vocational training or retraining (including the supply of goods and services incidental to that provision, other than the supply of research services)…”

This document looks at:

• impact of the updated legislation;
• purpose of article;
• vocational training and retraining;
• activities not regarded as exempt education or vocational training;
• electronically supplied education and vocational training;
• private tuition;
• supplies of goods or services incidental to education; and
• VAT recovery.

This article first appeared in Irish Tax Review, Vol. 30 No. 3 (2017) © Irish Tax Institute