Readers’ forum: Should US or UK charity organise conference?

We are registered with the Charity Commission as a historical organisation focusing on the lives and achievements of British politicians in the 19th and 20th centuries. We also have a separate charity registered in America which is a completely separate entity but with the same objectives.

We are holding our annual conference in London later in the year and we are exploring the best VAT outcome. We will charge a ticket price for admission to the event; this will only include attendance to the lectures and active sessions plus morning coffee and afternoon tea on each of the three days. We will be charged 20% VAT on the hire of the venue and speaker fees by an agency. In other words there is a big VAT liability on our expenses which we would like to claim from HMRC. However neither the UK nor US entity...