24 November 2020 
Andrea Marshall, Tax Specialist
Jeff Hall at PwC has flagged the Kaplan case with Andrea and there is a summary of it in this CTG link.
Jeff has advised:
The ECJ has held that members of a cost-sharing group (CSG) may also be members of a VAT group and may still enjoy the benefit of the VAT cost sharing exemption. However, if the VAT group includes members which are not also members of the CSG, the VAT grouping will give rise to a risk that the benefit of the cost sharing exemption will be enjoyed by a non-member of the CSG. The exemption will therefore not apply to supplies by the CSG to a VAT group whose members are not all members of the CSG.
It is notable that this judgment departs significantly from Advocate General Kokott’s analysis, as previously propounded in this case and in the cases of DNB Bank and Aviva, that VAT groups and CSGs ought to be restricted, both in terms of establishments and supplies, to the territory of a single Member State.
The ECJ has once again avoided the Advocate General's analysis on those points. And the ECJ has again confirmed that there is nothing to preclude members of a CSG from being members of a VAT group too. The problem arises where, by virtue of the VAT grouping, the benefit of the exemption would risk being extended to a VAT group member which is not also a member of the CSG, and would not qualify for the CSE in its own right.
Jeff has offered to run a time to talk session on this, so we will set it up for January.
