Graham Elliott, VAT expert at City & Cambridge Consultancy questions building status argument in Summit case, Making VAT Digital, VAT on non-EU mobile phone calls, students union and exemptions
Students and flats
In a case which illustrates the poor quality control exercised by HMRC over the cases it takes forward, HMRC tried to argue that construction of a building that qualifies as both a set of ‘dwellings’ and as a ‘relevant residential purpose’ building must follow the rules for the latter if a decision is ever made by a building contractor that it falls within that definition.
The case of Summit Electrical Installations (TC06006) involved electricians working on the construction of a new block of flats which could only be used by students. The building thus qualified as ‘dwellings’ as well as qualifying as ‘student accommodation’, which is a subset of ‘relevant residential purpose’.
Summit’s
