British Railways Board v Commissioners of Customs and Excise: CA 1977

The question of what is the supply, is, looking at all the circumstances objectively, what does the customer get, not why does he want it: ‘It cannot depend on the state of mind of any individual student by asking him or her: what did you pay the andpound;1.50 for? It must depend on the legal effect of the transaction considered in relation to the words of the statute. And that is a question of law.’

Judges:

Lord Denning, Browne

Citations:

[1977] CLY 3133, [1977] 1 WLR 588

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Dicta applidBritish Airways Plc v Customs and Excise Commissioners 1990
The taxpayer carried paying passengers. The travel was zero-rated. They also supplied in-flight food, which the Commissioners sought to hold taxable as a separate supply.
Held: The motives of the tax-payer and traveller were irrelevant. The . .
CitedCollege of Estate Management v Commissioners of Customs and Excise CA 11-Aug-2004
When offering courses to distance learning students, the College offered materials for the courses. As part of the course this supply would be exempt, as books, the supply would be zero-rated, but the taxpayer would be able to reclaim its VAT . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

VAT

Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.196632