Charged-on costs are not recognised as joint-account costs

It is essentially compulsory for entrepreneurs to add a value-added tax charge to the fees they charge on to their customers. The charging on of joint-account costs does not involve value-added tax having to be charged. Joint-account costs are costs incurred for the benefit of multiple entrepreneurs for initial settlement by only one of these. A fixed allocation formula is then used to charge on these costs to the other entrepreneurs. The risks associated with the costs in question rests with the entire group of entrepreneurs in accordance with the allocation formula having been agreed between them.

An entrepreneur who took care of the administrative accounts of several educational establishments filed for application of the scheme providing for the charging on of joint-account costs. Arguing that the risk had not been allocated among those involved in accordance with a fixed allocation formula, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal decided that it had been rendered insufficiently plausible that there had in fact been a question of joint-account costs, as a de facto judgment whose accuracy it was not possible to assess in proceedings in cassation. The Supreme Court decided that the Court of Appeal’s judgment had not been based on an incorrect interpretation of the law and dismissed the appeal in cassation as unfounded.