Sports facilities provided by local authorities

The Upper Tribunal has allowed HMRC’s appeal against the Mid Ulster District Council (UKUT00197) in respect of whether charges for the use of their facilities by the general public are outside the scope of VAT, as being a non-business local council activity.

In crude summary, the First Tier Tribunal had agreed with the taxpayer that its activities did not exist in a marketplace, and therefore were outside the scope, under the special rule for local councils, largely on the basis of an analysis of the particular needs of the community in Northern Ireland.