The court considered the right of a trader to deduct input VAT due or paid by it on supplies of services to it by a supplier (RM), so far as those supplies are used for the trader’s own supplies of goods or services to an ultimate consumer. Z used postal services provided by RM. All parties believed that the services were exempt from VAT but the ECJ decided they are not. Z therefore claimed a deduction for input tax in respect of the payments it made for these services, which it says as a matter of law included an element of VAT. RM has never paid the VAT to HMRC.
Held: Z could not claim to deduct an amount of VAT for which it had not been charged and which as a result had not been charged to the consumer. As a result, VAT could not be regarded as having been included in the price paid by Z to RM in return for the services, and therefore had not been ‘paid’ within the meaning of Article 168(a) of the Directive. VAT could not be regarded as being ‘due’ within the meaning of Article 168(a), since no request for payment of VAT had been sent to Z by RM.
Judges:
Lord Hodge
Lady Black
Lord Briggs
Lord Sales
Lord Hamblen
Citations:
[2022] UKSC 12
Links:
SC, Bailii Press Summary, Bailii Issues and Facts
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
At FTTTx – Zipvit Ltd v Revenue and Customs FTTTx 3-Jul-2014
FTTTx VAT – supply of individually negotiated postal services treated by all parties as exempt from VAT – customer seeking to reclaim input VAT on supply from HMRC – whether services standard rated under . .
At CA – Zipvit Ltd v Revenue and Customs CA 29-Jun-2018
. .
At UTTC – Zipvit Ltd v Revenue and Customs UTTC 27-Jun-2016
UTTC VALUE ADDED TAX – Is the appellant entitled to recover VAT input tax in respect of MailmediaR supplies to it from Royal Mail, notwithstanding that Royal Mail did not in fact pay VAT on those supplies, the . .
SC (1) – Zipvit Ltd v Revenue and Customs SC 1-Apr-2020
This case is concerned with the right of a trader (in this case, Zipvit) to deduct input VAT due or paid by it on supplies of services to it by a supplier (in this case, Royal Mail), so far as those supplies are used for the trader’s own supplies of . .
At ECJ – Zipvit ECJ 13-Jan-2022
Reference for a preliminary ruling – Common system of value added tax (VAT) – Directive 2006/112/EC – Article 168 – Right of deduction – Supply of postal services mistakenly exempted – VAT deemed to be included in the commercial price of the supply . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
VAT, European
Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.677493