Court of Justice (Eighth Chamber) 26 September 2013, C‑283/12 (Serebryannay vek EOOD v Direktor na Direktsia ‘Obzhalvane i upravlenie na izpalnenieto’ — Varna pri Tsentralno upravlenie na Natsionalna agentsia za prihodite.)

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In a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU, the Court of Justice (Eighth Chamber) addressed whether fitting-out and furnishing services provided by a company to an apartment owner constitute a supply of services for consideration under Article 2(1)(c) of VAT Directive 2006/112/EC, where the company obtained the right to use the apartments for its business activities during the contract term without paying rent, while the owner recovered the improved apartments upon expiry. The Court held that a direct legal relationship with reciprocal performance suffices to classify a transaction as one for consideration, and that the right to use the apartments for business purposes constitutes the actual consideration received in exchange for the fitting-out and furnishing services, making the arrangement economically equivalent to a barter contract. Accordingly, Article 2(1)(c) of Directive 2006/112/EC must be interpreted as meaning that such a supply of services is carried out for consideration, rendering the second to fourth questions on free-of-charge supplies, chargeable event timing, and taxable amount unnecessary to answer.AI