Case: Huddersfield University wins on property lease issue

Huddersfield University TC02823 has succeeded in a case which HMRC is likely to regard as important and likely to appeal.

It involved a property lease scheme which circumvented the anti-avoidance provisions for the option to tax by using an unrelated property company. This allowed the option to tax made by the parties to be valid thus allowing the VAT cost effectively to be spread, with the possibility of an outright saving by an early 'collapse' of the 'scheme'. The lease payments were set at market value.