Curious interpretation

Curious interpretation

Customs' interpretation of the European Court of Justice's decision in Card Protection Plan Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise (Case C-349/96) [1999] STC 270 is sometimes rather strange. Where land is sold with a 'new' civil engineering work it seems difficult to imagine a situation in which one supply will not be incidental to the other. Indeed this is clearly envisaged in the example of bare land surrounding a new airfield given in paragraph 3.3 of the March 2002 revision of Notice 742. There is plainly a single supply and the predominant element is the airfield. There is accordingly an unsplit standard-rated supply of the whole under item 1(a) of Group 1 of Schedule 9 to the VAT Act 1994.

It is difficult to understand however why the same principle is not operated in reverse in...