More than just land

VAT treatment of grant of right to use a stall at a craft fair

The taxpayer organised craft fairs in Dorset and accounted for output tax on admission fees paid by the public but not on the income she received from pitches sold to stallholders which she treated as exempt supplies of land.

HMRC said the supply was a standard-rated package of taxable services intended to give the business the opportunity to trade.

The First-tier Tribunal allowed the taxpayer’s appeal holding that the supply of space to stallholders was an exempt supply of a licence to occupy land.

The Upper Tribunal agreed with HMRC that the licence provided by the taxpayer to the stallholder was not only to use a plot of land but to use a stall or pitch at a specified event to sell items. Under the contract between the taxpayer and the stallholder...