Resisting HMRC on VAT ruling

Key points

• A business-to-business supply in Spain by a UK company was outside the scope of UK VAT.
• UK suppliers to the UK company charged VAT which was claimed.
• HMRC’s view was that VAT had been charged incorrectly by the suppliers of a UK business.
• The place of supply rules for business-to-business performance services changed in January 2011.
• The subtleties of the rules on ‘admission-related services’.
• HMRC email address to notify the department of incorrect technical information in its publications.

To quote the catchphrase of the late performer Max Bygraves: ‘I wanna tell you a story.’ Needless to say my story is about VAT and a very difficult encounter I had with an HMRC officer who refused to accept that HMRC’s own public notice was correct. ‘The notice is irrelevant ’ she said ‘it’s what it says in the HMRC VAT Manual that counts.’

The only problem was that the manual was more out-of-date on...