Supplies from student union café were not exempt

The claimant Anglia Ruskin Students’ Union ran a café at the Anglia Ruskin University. It sold food coffee and soft drinks but also beer and other alcoholic drinks.

HMRC considered that the café constituted a bar and the catering exemption in VAT Notice 709/1 para 5.5 did not apply. As a result the catering supplies were standard rated. That concession allows a student union to apply the exemption in VATA 1994 Sch 9 Group 6 item 4 to supplies of catering as its parent institution (the eligible body) if the supplies are made on behalf of and with the agreement of the parent institution. The concession states that ‘it does not cover food and drink sold from campus shops bars tuck shops’.

The union applied for judicial review.

In the High Court Mr Justice Saini said...