Canteen lease at market rent qualifies for voluntary VAT registration

In binding advance ruling BFU 8/2026 (issued 20 May 2026, published 24 September 2026), the tax office accepts that a 719 sqm canteen area can be brought under a property company's existing voluntary VAT registration for letting of real propertySkatteetaten, and that the company has full input-VAT deduction on the construction and rehabilitation costs for the area — provided the canteen operator uses the premises in VAT-liable activitySkatteetaten. The costs at stake are around NOK 30 million excluding VATSkatteetaten, corresponding to roughly NOK 7.5 million in VAT, capitalised and subject to the ten-year adjustment rules in merverdiavgiftsloven §§ 9-1 et seq.

The decisive question was whether a real lease with real consideration exists between the owner (A) and the canteen operator, as required for voluntary registration under merverdiavgiftsloven § 2-3 first paragraphSkatteetaten. A will sign an ordinary mutually binding lease with the operator for the whole canteen area at market rentSkatteetaten, invoiced with 25 per cent VAT under the voluntary registration. The building's other tenants will pay the operator a combined operating subsidy matching the agreed net rentSkatteetaten, distributed proportionally by leased exclusive area — and the ruling assumes the subsidy flows directly from the tenants to the operator, and that any subsidy from A itself is a separate legal relationship that does not reduce the rent.

The office distinguishes BFU 10/2023, where the landlord continuously remitted the agreed rent so that nothing was ever really paid. Here the operator pays market rent that is not remittedSkatteetaten: that third parties subsidise the operator does not change the legal relationship between A and the operatorSkatteetaten. After an overall assessment, the arrangement carries real consideration for the exclusive right of useSkatteetaten, and therefore constitutes turnover of a letting serviceSkatteetaten — the canteen area can enter A's voluntary registration under § 2-3 first paragraphSkatteetaten.

On deduction, a voluntarily registered lessor has full deduction for costs relating to areas used exclusively in VAT-liable activity, under merverdiavgiftsloven § 8-1Skatteetaten. A therefore has full deduction on its acquisitions for the canteen area, provided the operator uses it in VAT-liable activitySkatteetaten — with the documentation duties in merverdiavgiftsforskriften § 2-3-2 (measured drawings, leases, annual overview of use, per-user specification of construction costs) to be met.

The ruling expressly declines to decide the other tax questions the model raises — the VAT treatment of the tenants' operating subsidy, or of any further subsidy for the operator's other fixed costs — limiting itself to the two questions asked. For landlords planning canteen structures on the lease model, the operative conditions are: market rent that is actually paid, subsidies routed tenant-to-operator rather than through the rent, and the operator's VAT-liable use of the premises.

Legal basis: BFU 8/2026 under merverdiavgiftsloven §§ 2-3 first paragraph and 8-1, distinguishing BFU 10/2023.