KVL:020/2026 treats defined self-storage units as exempt letting

A landlord that leases out defined storage rooms of about 1–30 m² for the storage of movable property makes an exempt transfer of a right of use to immovable property where each customer receives a specific walled unit for exclusive possession and the landlord cannot substitute one unit for another.Vero That is the outcome of advance ruling KVL:020/2026Vero, which applies for the period 21 August 2026 to 31 December 2027Vero.

Exclusivity and passivity decided the case. Under the facts put to the Central Tax Board, the tenant received the right to use precisely the rented unit and to exclude others from itVero, the unit could be used only for storing goods plus shared passage and transport areas, access was limited to 5.30–24.00, and overnight stays were prohibited. The landlord had no right to enter a let unit except where rent was unpaid, where the tenant had not emptied the unit at the end of the lease, or to avert imminent damage such as water damage. On those facts the Board held that the customer obtained an exclusive right to dispose of the rented spaceVero, that the service was a passive transfer of the use of immovable propertyVero, and that it constituted letting of immovable property within the meaning of the Court of Justice case lawVero. This matches the Union test: letting means granting, for an agreed period and for consideration, the right to occupy property as its owner and to exclude others, and the exemption covers activity that is relatively passive rather than the performance of a commercial service with supervision, upkeep and added facilities.

The exempt classification is not the same as a storage-locker service. Transfers of the right of use of säilytyslokerot remain taxable under the express exception in the VAT ActFinlex, and active service packages built around the space, such as the machine-hall services in C-215/19 where customers received no owner-like control over any part of the building, fall outside the exemption. What brought these storage rooms inside the exemption was the combination of a defined immovable-property part assigned to the customer's exclusive use, which the implementing regulation expressly treats as letting, with no added commercial service beyond making the space available.Vero

Exemption has a direct consequence for input tax: an exempt landlord has no right of deduction on the costs of the exempt unitsVero. For the period of the ruling the landlord may instead opt to become taxable on the transfer of the right of use under the conditions of the VAT Act.Vero Tax liability covers only the property or part of it named in the application and requires that the property be used continuously for activity giving a deduction right under Chapter 10, or that the user is the state, a university, a university of applied sciences company or a qualifying private vocational-education providerFinlex. Where a lessee transfers the right of use onwards, the lessee must also opt to be taxable. In practice the election is therefore available for units let continuously to businesses carrying on deductible activityVero, while units let to consumers for private storage stay exempt because no deduction right attaches to their use.

The ruling was published only as a short summary and it is final.

The legal basis is Arvonlisäverolaki (1501/1993) 1 § 1 mom. 1 kohta, 27 §, 28 § and 30 §, Council Directive 2006/112/EC Article 135(1)(l), Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011 Articles 13b and 31a as amended by Regulation 1042/2013, and the judgments of the Court of Justice in C-449/19, C-215/19 and C-155/12.