Upper Tribunal decision in Yorkshire Agricultural Society

When the chancellor of the exchequer Anthony Barber announced in 1973 that VAT would be a ‘simple tax’ he would never have envisaged that the UK courts and tax authorities would face legal challenges and complicated cases about the wording of specific parts of the legislation – and what they mean – as we have recently encountered with the case of CRC v Yorkshire Agricultural Society [2025] STC 162.

Two courts have now considered if admission fees to the Great Yorkshire Show (GYS) in 2016 and 2020 were exempt from VAT as a fundraising event or whether they were standard rated because the event did not fully comply with the conditions for exemption as stated in VATA 1994 Sch 9 Group 12 item 1. The score is currently 2-0 to the charity.

The facts

Many readers will be aware of the show because...