Provision of Infrastructure to Public Authorities under EU VAT

Local authorities often require, as a prerequisite for approval of a zoning plan or the granting of a building permit, private real estate developers to construct additional infrastructural facilities on their own account and to transfer ownership of the infrastructure to them (or to designated public utility companies) free of charge. In this article, the author discusses the VAT treatment of the construction of infrastructural facilities by private real estate developers and their subsequent free provision to the local authorities, which is not uniform across the European Union.