Loyalty points are not vouchers, HFD holds

Retailers running points-based customer loyalty programmes may not treat the redemption of points as a retroactive discountSkatteverket, and the points themselves are not vouchersSkatteverket. The Supreme Administrative Court heldSkatteverket on 26 June 2026, in HFD 2026 ref 39Skatteverket (case 7424-23), affirming an advance ruling of the Council for Advance Tax Rulings, that points earned on ordinary purchases and redeemed for goods from the retailer's points shop neither reduce the taxable base of the points-generating sale nor constitute a transfer of vouchersSkatteverket.

The ruling concerned Lyko Operations ABSkatteverket, which sells hair-care and beauty products in stores and online. Private customers join the programme free of chargeSkatteverket, earn points on each ordinary purchaseSkatteverket, and may redeem them only in connection with a new ordinary purchaseSkatteverket. The points shop is stocked from the ordinary assortmentSkatteverket, mainly items of minor value worth around 2-10 per cent of the consideration paid on the original purchasesSkatteverket. Each redeemed point is traceable to the aggregate purchases of a given month that generated itSkatteverket, and points can neither be redeemed for money nor bought for moneySkatteverket.

On the discount question, the court reasoned that redeeming points does not reduce the consideration the retailer receivesSkatteverket; customers simply get additional goods for the consideration they pay on their ordinary purchasesSkatteverket. The redemption is therefore not a post-supply price reduction that lowers the taxable base of the original supplySkatteverket. The taxable base for a supply of goods is the consideration — everything the supplier has received or is to receiveSkatteverket — and a post-supply discount is excluded from it only where the parties have not agreed otherwiseSkatteverket.

On vouchers, a voucher requires an obligation to accept the instrument as consideration or part of it for a supply of goods or servicesSkatteverket. Following the Court of Justice's preliminary ruling in C-436/24 on these very pointsSkatteverket, the court found no such obligationSkatteverket: the points merely entitle the holder, with a new ordinary purchase, to receive a premium in the form of additional goods of minor valueSkatteverket. The voucher definition in the VAT Act is read in line with the directiveSkatteverket, so the points are not vouchers eitherSkatteverket. The Council had added that, provided the goods are of minor value, handing over points-shop goods is a gift, since the customer receives them without paying consideration.

For advisers, the consequence is that the taxable base of the bonus-generating sale stands, and no voucher accounting — including Lyko's alternative claim of a zero-base voucher transaction at redemption — arisesSkatteverket. The ruling is an advance ruling answering the questions as put for the programme described in the applicationSkatteverket.

Legal basis: 2 kap. 26 § and 8 kap. 14 § mervärdesskattelagen (2023:200)Skatteverket, corresponding to articles 30a, 73 and 90.1 of the VAT Directive (2006/112/EC)Skatteverket, applied in HFD 2026 ref 39 following C-436/24Skatteverket.