Keeping the property in a business transfer can trigger a VAT adjustment

Skatteverket published new guidance on 9 September 2026 on two of its rättslig vägledning pages, applying the General Court's judgment in case T-397/25 (A&P Deco), delivered on 2 September 2026Skatteverket. The guidance covers the common succession scenario where the owner of a business conducted in their own property transfers the business but keeps the property and leases it to the buyer, who continues the same kind of activity in the same premises.

The worked example runs as follows: A carries on a business with deductible transactions in a property A owns. A transfers the business to B but does not sell the property, instead letting it to B, who continues the same kind of activity A previously carried on there. A does not apply the rules on frivillig beskattning (voluntary taxation) to the letting, so the letting is exempt from VATSkatteverket.

The first point of the guidance is that such a transaction can still be a verksamhetsöverlåtelse (transfer of a going concern) even though the property is not transferredSkatteverket. Where the assets transferred are sufficient for the buyer to durably continue an independent economic activity, the transfer qualifiesSkatteverket, consistent with the Court of Justice's judgment in C-444/10 (Schriever) that premises made available by lease do not prevent a transfer of a totality of assets. But the grant of the lease itself is not part of the business transferSkatteverket: the owner creates a new, time-limited letting right rather than transferring a pre-existing right, so it falls outside Articles 19 and 29 of the VAT DirectiveEuropa (T-397/25, paragraphs 52-54).

The second point is the VAT recovery consequence. Because A no longer uses the property for transactions giving a right of deduction and instead makes an exempt letting supply, A has changed the use of the propertySkatteverket. A may therefore become obliged to adjust (justera) input VAT deductions relating to the propertySkatteverket, even though B continues to use it for deductible transactions. The Court held that the amounts due on adjustment must be paid by the taxable person who applied the deduction, namely the transferor-landlord: the transferee's continued taxable use does not remove the transferor's obligationSkatteverket (T-397/25, paragraphs 38-40 and 62, operative part).

For property-owning businesses planning a succession, the practical consequence is to price in a possible adjustment charge when the retained property will be let exempt after the transferSkatteverket. Electing frivillig beskattning for the letting, where available, changes the analysis in the example because the use would then remain taxable. Legal basis: Articles 19, 29 and 184-190 of the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC) as interpreted in T-397/25 (A&P Deco), applied in Skatteverket's rättslig vägledning on justering av avdrag and överlåtelse av verksamhet.