Concerns are continuing over HMRC’s moves to make charities pay VAT on advertising on digital platforms such as Google and Facebook. It now seems that it is targeting more charities over this. However, we believe there are arguments to contest its approach.

The law on VAT was written a long time before the world entered an electronic age and, while the world is changing, VAT law is often firmly stuck in the 1970s. This is why if you buy a newspaper from a shop it is a zero-rated supply of goods but if you download that same newspaper, it is a standard-rated supply of a service.