A cleaning company holds two season tickets for Ajax and buys another 22 tickets for the Ajax-Juventus match. The cards are used by employees and the shareholder. The company argues that the cards serve for acquisition and customer relationship management. The inspector imposes an additional tax assessment for payroll taxes. This is because the company did not administer who attended the matches and for what purpose. Is the additional tax assessment justified?
Business?
The company argues that the cards are acquisition tools. Potential customers are taken to matches or given tickets. During matches and events at the stadium, the company gains new contacts that lead to sales. The cleaning industry is a competitive market in which contracts are established on the basis of personal awards and networking. According to the company, the inspector did not make it plausible that there was a benefit in kind.
Private
The court ruled that attending football matches is largely recreational in nature. In principle, employees attending a match do so out of their own personal satisfaction of needs. It is then up to the company to make the business nature of the provision plausible. The company fails to do so. The company did not disclose who used the tickets and whether that was for business or private purposes. The fact that a contact can be made during a match visit that develops into a business contact does not eliminate the consumptive nature of the visit. The additional tax assessment was rightly imposed.