The Bavarian State Office for Taxes (BayLfSt) has issued a ruling on the treatment of turnover in the context of self-use and leasing of hunting districts. In it, the authority also explains the VAT treatment of the use of communal hunting grounds by hunting cooperatives with regard to the new regulation of turnover taxation of the public sector.
It is clarified that the hunting right is inseparably linked to the ownership of the land and may only be exercised in hunting districts. Own hunting districts exist if they are owned by a person or a community of persons. Community hunting districts are all areas of land in a municipality that do not belong to a proprietary hunting district. The owners of the areas form hunting cooperatives by law. The right to hunt belongs to the owner in the proprietor’s hunting district, and to the cooperative in the communal hunting district. The owner of the hunting right may either exercise it himself or lease it out.
The self-use of the hunting right by the landowner is a consequence of the management of an agricultural and forestry enterprise. If the use of the proprietor’s hunting right is no longer part of a self-managed agricultural and forestry business, the sales made in the context of hunting are subject to standard taxation (e.g. in the case of leasing the proprietor’s own landscape business as a whole). If a farmer and forester leases out his own hunting ground, this lease is not within the scope of a self-managed agricultural and forestry business. This leasing turnover is subject to standard taxation.
The BayLfSt explicitly addresses the new regulation of turnover taxation of legal persons under public law (jPöR) through the introduction of Section 2b of the Turnover Tax Act (UStG). This is to be applied to transactions carried out after 31 December 2016. Due to an optional transitional regulation, which was extended until 31.12.2024, the previous turnover taxation is still applicable. However, an option to the old regulation is no longer possible for transactions carried out after 31.12.2024.
The hunting cooperatives in Bavaria have predominantly made use of the option regulation and therefore only apply the new regulation from 01.01.2025. If the cooperative has made use of the option, the long-term lease of the hunting right leads to a non-taxable asset management. However, if § 2b UStG is applied, the cooperative independently carries out a sustainable economic activity to generate income by managing or leasing the hunting right itself. It is thus an entrepreneur and consequently performs services that are subject to turnover tax and taxable.
Sources
BayLfSt, Vfg. v. 27.12.2022 – S 7416.1.1-2/8 St33; www.finanzamt.bayern.de