Pitfalls of VAT capital goods scheme

KEY POINTS

• The capital goods scheme applies to capital expenditure on land and buildings with a value of £250 000.
• The flat rate scheme cannot be used with the capital goods scheme.
• Impact of the scheme on a transfer of a going concern.
• Thresholds of the capital goods scheme should be reviewed.

The capital goods scheme (CGS) recently enjoyed its moment in the spotlight with the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) making several recommendations to improve procedures in its report on simplifying VAT.

Never before having written about the CGS for Taxation I will now correct that oversight and alert readers to two practical pitfalls. I should probably have delayed my writing until late October because these are a couple of VAT horrors that would be ideal for the Halloween edition.

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