By concession, HMRC currently allow certain supplies of temporary workers by employment agencies to exclude the wages element when charging VAT, i.e. VAT is only due on the commission. It was announced in the March 2008 Budget that this concession will be withdrawn from 1 April 2009. This will have the effect of further increasing [...]
In our January VAT update, we wrote about the House of Lords judgement in the cases Conde Nast and Fleming, which obliged HMRC to now repay VAT refunds accrued but not claimed for periods before 1996 right the way back to when VAT was introduced in 1973. HMRC have since confirmed that this relates to [...]
The House of Lords has delivered its judgement on the legality of the three-year cap on VAT refunds. The Conde Nast and Fleming judgement states that when the three-year time limit for VAT claims was introduced back in 1996, HMRC should have allowed an adequate transitional period for retrospective refunds to be made. Furthermore, the [...]
In our last newsletter, we provided definitive guidance agreed with HMRC regarding VAT recovery on agency staff. In particular, HMRC had ruled that VAT on nursing services and nursing staff either provided by a nursing principal or nursing agency could be recovered under COS heading 41 provided the nurses were ‘qualified’ nursing grades, i.e., grades [...]
NHS bodies have historically recovered VAT on all agency staff with the full knowledge of HMRC, however as outlined in our previous news bulletins, they have endeavoured over the last few years to clarify and also restrict the COS headings relating to these types of supplies. There is often confusion as to whether NHS bodies [...]
HM Treasury have completed their review of the COS headings and a revised direction will be issued in the very near future. We shall publish the revised list applicable to the NHS as soon as this becomes available. In the meantime, HMRC have given early notification to a couple of changes which will have retrospective [...]
As outlined in our previous newsletters, there are changes to the VAT liability of certain medical services which came into place on 1 May 2007. These affect NHS Trusts that generate non-NHS medical income from activities such as clinical trials or occupational health services. An example is ‘post-mortem examinations and reports’ provided to coroners, which [...]
We have recently had re-confirmation from HMRC of the current COS VAT recovery rules applicable patient appliances. The term ‘patient appliances’ refers to items worn by patients such as footwear, callipers, wigs, etc and also applies to aids such as wheelchairs and walking frames. Custom Made Items The supply of bespoke surgical footwear or of [...]
A 'Memorandum of Understanding’ relating to joint staff of universities and NHS organisations has been agreed with The Department of Health, NHS Employers and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association in response to the University of Glasgow - v- HM Revenue and Customs VAT tribunal ruling. In the University of Glasgow case released in April [...]
As outlined in our February 2007 newsletter, there are changes to the VAT liability of certain medical services which are due to come into place on 1 May 2007. These will affect NHS Trusts that generate non-NHS medical income from activities such as clinical trials or occupational health services. In our experience, Trusts usually get [...]