On December 15, 2022, the Central Economic-Administrative Court ( TEAC ) has issued two resolutions in unification of criteria (RG 05825/2022 and RG 06997/2022) related to the possible exemption and, where applicable, VAT tax rate, applicable to the activity of renting chairs or boxes to attend the Holy Week processions.

The arguments and criteria of these two resolutions are the following:

The TEAC considers that the processional parades of Holy Week have a place in article 20.Uno.14.d) of Law 37/1992, of December 28, on the Tax on Added Value, since there is no doubt about the not only religious, but also cultural character of the Holy Week processions.

However, these are two different services: attending the processional parades and renting chairs or boxes that allow you to watch the parade seated.

If public access to the processional parade along the Official Race were free and free, that is, if anyone could watch said parade without having to pay for it, certainly, people who paid to rent a chair or box would not do so properly. to see the processional parade - free and open access - but to be able to watch it sitting down.

However, if access to the processional parade along the Official Race were not free and free, that is, such a parade could only be seen by those who had paid the corresponding price, then they would not be two different services (a cultural service with access free and free consisting of the processional parades and a rental service of chairs and boxes, for a fee), but a single service provided by the taxpayer as the body in charge of regulating the set of Holy Week processions, consisting of granting, upon payment, access to a restricted area of the processional route through the city, the so-called Official Race, to watch the Holy Week parades of all the brotherhoods that participate in it.

In the appeals, the TEAC does not consider it proven whether public access to the processional parade was free and free, but, given the possibility that both situations could occur, the TEAC establishes the following criteria for each of them:

1. When the contemplation of the processional parades through the so-called Official Race during Holy Week is not free and free, that is, it is reserved exclusively for those people who pay for it, the sale of tickets for chairs and boxes to sit and watch such parades. It constitutes a service subject to, but exempt from, Value Added Tax. It will be understood that the contemplation of the processional parades is not reserved exclusively for those who pay when the public that does not pay, even without having access to the areas of chairs or boxes, could contemplate the processional parades normally throughout the Official Race or in part of it, because there is no relevant obstacle that prevents it.

2. On the contrary, if such parades could normally be watched by anyone, by the entire Official Career or by part of it, without having to pay for it, that is, if access to them were free and free, the sale of Subscriptions for chairs and boxes would in such a case constitute a service subject to and not exempt from VAT, subject to taxation at the general rate of 21%.

You can consult the full text of the resolutions in the following links Resolution 05825/2022 and Resolution 06997/2022 .