After 14 years of legal proceedings, one of the VAT cases in which BeCA took the lead has been definitively concluded. In the SFA/CAE-1 case, 96 pilots will receive a VAT refund from the Belgian State. Meanwhile, nine similar cases are still ongoing.

Background of the case

Before 1 January 2014, there was legal uncertainty regarding the VAT treatment of flight training.

According to the law, these trainings were VAT-exempt, while administrative guidelines allowed VAT to be charged. As of 1 January 2014, the legislation was amended, making the charging of VAT legally mandatory.

Due to this legal gap, many flight schools applied a VAT system that was, strictly speaking, not compliant with the law.

Nevertheless, the divergence between legislation and administrative practice gave students the opportunity to reclaim the full amount of VAT charged on invoices issued before 2014, provided they were less than ten years old.

BeCA’s role

BeCA legally facilitated this opportunity with the dual objective of ensuring students were correctly compensated while at the same time protecting flight schools from direct VAT recovery claims, by involving the Belgian State in the proceedings.

The legal actions had to be formally initiated against the schools, which could then recover the refunded amounts from the State.

Our lawyer worked on the basis of 10% of the recovered amount. BeCA members were not required to pay this advance. However, over the years BeCA did finance several additional legal steps (cassation, additional procedures, etc.), amounting to a total cost of approximately €10,000.

Collective added value

We are pleased that all participants can benefit from this outcome. Such long-running and complex cases are only possible thanks to a strong organisation, sufficient resources, and an active membership base.

This result clearly demonstrates that staying organised and acting collectively delivers results — even when the process is long and demanding.

As the legislation was corrected in 2014 and the statutory ten-year limitation period has since expired, this possibility for VAT recovery is now definitively closed.