Graham Elliott, VAT expert and director at City & Cambridge Consultancy, examines the Boggis ruling on definition of dwelling, input tax allowed in management buyout, input tax at Durham Cathedral
Definition of dwelling
The familiar issue of whether a house can qualify as a dwelling under the ‘separate use and disposal’ test (thus allowing VAT recovery to apply to costs), has arisen in the case of Boggis (TC05519). The dwelling in question could be occupied by an employee, a retiree, his/her dependants, and his/her widow/widower. The employment was an equestrian business. The only alternative use was ‘ancillary’ to the residential use of a specified farmhouse.
This introduced the familiar issues of possible use by persons connected with an employee of the specific business. It also included a factor not often seen, which is that a distinct extra possible use – ancillary use to another house – was possible as an alternative (and one assumes that this is essentially the same as ‘granny annexe’ use).
To co
