In this month’s VAT updates, Graham Elliott examines tribunal decisions in supply of sporting services, flat rate scheme for small business, and the margin scheme and second-hand cars in Northern Ireland
Sports supplies
Scraps of useful insight can sometimes emerge from tribunal cases, and an example in the field of sport is the First Tier Tribunal decision in Cambridge University Boathouse Limited (TC08304).
The case relates to the principle that (subject to other conditions) a supply of sporting services to a members’ club can be treated as made to ‘individuals’ in order for the exemption for sporting services to apply, essentially by looking through the corporate entity to see the real users beneath.
This hearing was not intended by the parties to decide whether the relevant supply was taxable or exempt, but only whether, as a finding of pure fact, the supplies in question had been made to individuals in that sense, or to a club operating in another way (that is, separately and distinctly from its members or assumed members).
