Single or mixed supply of skate hire and rink admission

This appeal was initially heard by the First-tier Tribunal in September 2017 (TC6117). The decision went in favour of the taxpayer to the effect that when a child went ice skating at a rink and paid extra money to hire a pair of skates as well as the admission charge to use the rink it constituted two separate supplies. The problem was that the supplies were subject to different rates of VAT. The hire of skates for children is zero rated (VATA 1994 Sch 8 group 16 item 1) but the admission charge is standard rated.

The Upper Tribunal in April 2019 ruled that the First-tier Tribunal had answered the wrong question. It should have looked at the transaction from the view of a typical customer who needed both the skates and the admission to the...