VAT Recoverability of Unredeemed Single Purpose Vouchers

In Air France, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) decided that the no-show of travellers does not invalidate the characterization of the sales of tickets as a taxable supply for VAT purposes and rejected the claims of appellants seeking the repayment of VAT accounted for on the tickets issued but not used. In this article, the author analyses the amendments of the VAT Directive related to single purpose vouchers (SPVs) and the Air France and other ECJ cases, with an aim to clarify the possibilities of recovering VAT on unredeemed SPVs.