Recovery of residual input tax

The taxpayer had exempt income from gaming activities but also standard rated income from hospitality and entertainment facilities including eight bars and many restaurants. The venue opened in 2005 and was intended by the directors to be a ‘Las Vegas style experience within the boundaries of the UK legislation and the space available’.

The directors decided that an apportionment of residual input tax – VAT paid on mixed costs and general overheads – did not produce a fair result with the standard method based on turnover. With the standard method input tax recovery depends on the percentage of taxable sales compared to taxable plus exempt sales. The main reason for this conclusion was because most overheads related to property costs and the higher gaming income per square footage compared to the restaurant and bar areas gave a distortive result of the use of the building. By applying the...