VAT successes for charity sector

Finance | 25 Mar 2008

A VAT tribunal has ruled that abandoned animals handed into pet rescue centres and charities by police or members of the public are zero-rated for VAT when re-homed and sold to new owners. HMRC had previously ruled that only animals donated to such charities by their original owners could be zero-rated.

The tribunal found that the charity involved in the appeal, the Gablesfarm Dogs and Cats Home in Plymouth, had taken steps to return genuinely lost animals to their owners and that those it offered for re-homing had been deliberately abandoned. In these circumstances the animals given to the charity by the local authority, the police and members of the public were donated and therefore zero-rated when sold.

HMRC is not appealing against the tribunal’s decision and accepts that charities selling animals in similar circumstances should zero-rate their supplies.

Meanwhile, charities which operate day care centres and care homes which partly cater for the disabled may be eligible for a VAT refund following a another recent case involving Friends of the Elderly. HMRC policy has been that zero-rating has been available on the actual physical installation of a lift but not the other professional services necessary to its installation such as those of architects or surveyors. The tribunal found that this policy was incorrect and that zero-rating should apply to all services necessary to installation, including project viability reports. This means that charities will have overpaid VAT on these services which they can now recover.

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.