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These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases.  














VAT - From: 1999 To: 1999

This page lists 28 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.

 
Marks and Spencer Plc v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 19 January 1999
19 Jan 1999
QBD

VAT, European
Reclaims of overpaid VAT are governed by our domestic legislation, and not by European VAT law. Zero-rate is not a tax set under European law. Limitations on reclaims are therefore properly set by our national legislation. Unjust enrichment explored.
Value Added Tax Act 1994 80

 
Elias Gate Racing v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 28 December 1998; Gazette, 10 February 1999
10 Feb 1999
QBD

VAT
A reduction assessment made by the Commissioners, of the VAT due, which had made been under their powers to make such 'according to their best judgment', could not be challenged at the VAT Tribunal on the exercise of that best judgment.
Value Added Tax Act 1994 73(1)


 
 Commissioners of Customs and Excise v British Telecommunications Plc; HL 11-Feb-1999 - Gazette, 14 July 1999; Times, 05 July 1999; [1999] UKHL 3; [1999] 1 WLR 1376; [1999] AC 1376

 
 Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Redrow Group Plc; HL 11-Feb-1999 - Times, 18 February 1999; Gazette, 03 March 1999; [1999] UKHL 4; [1999] STC 161; [1999] 2 All ER 13; [1999] 1 WLR 408
 
Allan Bennett v H M Commissioners of Customs and Excise [1999] EWHC Admin 142
16 Feb 1999
Admn

VAT

[ Bailii ]
 
Card Protection Plan Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 18 March 1999; C-349/96; [1999] STC 270; [1999] 2 AC 601; [1998] EUECJ C-349/96_O
25 Feb 1999
ECJ

European, Scotland, VAT, Insurance
A company procuring insurance purchases for credit card protection was as exempt from VAT as was the insurer. A provision which restricted the ability to claim such exemption to those registered as insurers under national was invalid under European Law: "it is for the national court to determine … whether the transactions . . are to be regarded for VAT purposes as comprising two independent supplies . . or whether one of those two supplies is the principal supply to which the other is ancillary, so that it receives the same tax treatment as the principal supply." What matters is "the essential features of the transaction". "There is a single supply in particular in cases where one or more elements are to be regarded as constituting the principal service, whilst one or more elements are to be regarded, by contrast, as ancillary services which share the tax treatment of the principal service. A service must be regarded as ancillary to a principal service if it does not constitute for customers an aim in itself, but a means of better enjoying the principal service supplied . ."
As to what amounted to insurance, the court said: "the essentials of an insurance transaction are, as generally understood, that the insurer undertakes, in return for prior payment of a premium, to provide the insured, in the event of materialisation of the risk covered, with the service agreed when the contract was concluded.
It is not essential that the service the insurer has undertaken to provide in the event of loss consists in the payment of a sum of money, as that service may also take the form of the provision of assistance in cash or in kind of the type listed in the annex Directive 73/239 as amended by Directive 84/641. There is no reason for the interpretation of the term 'insurance' to differ according to whether it appears in the Directive on insurance or in the Sixth Directive."
Directive 73/239
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
Lancaster v Bird Times, 09 March 1999
9 Mar 1999
CA

VAT
A term can be implied by custom that VAT is to be charged over and above the contract price stated, but in consumer contracts, this could only be achieved by an explicit term of the contract. This could not satisfy the 'officious bystander' test.


 
 Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales v Commissioners of Customs and Excise; HL 11-Mar-1999 - Times, 29 March 1999; Gazette, 19 May 1999; [1999] UKHL 19; [1999] 2 All ER 449; [1999] 1 WLR 701
 
Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Liverpool School for Performing Arts [1999] EWCA Civ 1004
17 Mar 1999
CA

VAT

[ Bailii ]
 
Ghulam Ahmed (T/a Lister Fisheries) v Commissioners of Customs and Excise [1999] EWHC Admin 243
19 Mar 1999
Admn

VAT

[ Bailii ]
 
Wynn Realisation Ltd (In Administration) v Vogue Holdings Inc [1999] STC 524; [1999] EWCA Civ 1087; [1999] BTC 5224; [1999] BVC 245
24 Mar 1999
CA
Morritt, Auld, Clarke LJJ
VAT, Land
Appeal of Wynn Realisations Ltd from an order dismissing the claim of Wynn to £107,250 as being part of the price due but unpaid on the sale of certain land by Wynn to the defendant Vogue Holdings Incorporated. The sum represented the VAT element, the contract expreessin the purchase price to be exclusive of VAT. Held; The appeal suceeed, and the sum representing vAt was payable. The parties considered that no VAT would be payable or that it could only be payable if the option to tax were taken, but the reason VAT is payable has nothing do with whether or not Wynn opted to tax.
[ Bailii ]
 
Wynn Realisations Ltd v Vogue Holdings Inc [1999] STC 524; [1999] BVC 245; [1999] EWCA Civ 1087; [1999] BTC 5224
24 Mar 1999
CA
Morritt LJ
Land, VAT
Morritt LJ said: "First, VAT, where payable, is charged by reference to the value of the supply which, when in money, is to be taken to be such amount as with the addition of the VAT is equal to the consideration: the price is VAT inclusive. This is apparent from section 19(2) of the 1994 Act. It is for that reason that where VAT is not to be included, the parties normally makes express reference to the fact that the price does not include VAT by reference to a number of formulae, of which "exclusive of VAT" is perhaps the most common."
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]

 
 Svenska International Plc v Commissioners of Customs and Excise; HL 25-Mar-1999 - Times, 30 March 1999; Gazette, 03 June 1999; [1999] UKHL 23; [1999] 1 WLR 769; [1999] 2 All ER 906
 
Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Liverpool Society of Performing Arts Times, 01 April 1999
1 Apr 1999
CA

VAT
Out of country supplies are not to be treated as taxable supplies in order to identify basis for input tax to be apportioned between taxable and exempt supplies. Out of country supplies not to be included in denominator.
Value Added Tax (General) Regulations 1985 (1985 No 886) Part V

 
Kuwait Petroleum (GB) Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 14 May 1999; C-48/97; [1999] STC 488; [1999] EUECJ C-48/97
27 Apr 1999
ECJ
Advocate General Fennelly
VAT
'Items' described as gifts' which Kuwait Petroleum exchanged under a petrol promotion scheme for vouchers received by customers purchasing petrol were issued 'free of charge". The purchase of petrol and the exchange of vouchers for gifts were separate transactions, and the petrol was sold and invoiced for the price paid, there being nothing to suggest that the price contained a component representing the value of the vouchers or of the redemption goods. Held: Where goods were supplied as part of sales promotion free to purchasers of petrol, but remained of substantial value, they were chargeable supplies and liable to VAT in the sellers hands. Fennelly: "I cannot pretend that it is easy to extract from the case law a completely coherent set of rules which it is possible to apply with total confidence to every promotion scheme devised by the ingenuity of commerce". However: "Goods are supplied 'for consideration' within the meaning of art 2(1) of the Sixth Directive only if there is a reciprocal relationship between the supplier and the purchaser entailing reciprocal performance, the price received by the supplier constituting the value actually given in return for the goods supplied . . . "
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
Norbury Developments v Commissioners of Customs and Excise C-136/97; [1999] EUECJ C-136/97
29 Apr 1999
ECJ

VAT
ECJ (Judgment) VAT - Sixth Directive - Transitional provisions - Maintenance of exemptions - Supply of building land
[ Bailii ]

 
 Mathieson v Decision of Edinburgh Vat and Duties Tribunal and the Commissioners of Customs and Excise; SCS 6-May-1999 - [1999] ScotCS 106

 
 Mathieson v Commissioners of Customs and Excise; OHCS 17-Jun-1999 - Times, 17 June 1999
 
Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Sinclair Collis Limited [1999] EWCA Civ 1651; [1999] STC 701
23 Jun 1999
CA

VAT, Landlord and Tenant
The commissioners appealed against a decision that the agreements under which the respondents hired out vending displays to shops were for the occupation of land, and so were exempt from VAT. Held: (a) the terms of the Directive are to be given a Community law meaning and (b) that domestic legislation must be construed as far as possible so as to give effect to a Community directive which it has sought to implement.
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
Staatssecretaris van Financien v Coffeeshop "Siberie" vof Times, 08 July 1999; C-158/98; [1999] STC 742; [1999] EUECJ C-158/98
29 Jun 1999
ECJ

VAT
A café owner rented a table out to a drug dealer. He was charged VAT on the rent, but denied liability on the basis that it was an illegal activity and not taxable. However the renting itself was not unlawful either under national Netherlands law or International law. It was held that VAT was payable.
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Zoological Society of London [1999] EWHC Admin 677
13 Jul 1999
Admn

VAT
The society had an unpaid governing board (like a board of directors) and certain senior employees who were called directors but who were not on the board (though they attended meetings). Exemption from VAT was refused on the ground that the society was not managed and administered on an essentially voluntary basis because these people were paid.
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]

 
 Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Pilgrims Language Courses Limited; CA 23-Jul-1999 - Times, 22 August 1999; [1999] EWCA Civ 1939; [1999] STC 874
 
Jennifer Gregg and Mervyn Gregg v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 19 October 1999; C-216/97; [1999] STC 934; [1999] EUECJ C-216/97
7 Sep 1999
ECJ

VAT
For the purposes of Value Added Tax, the terms 'Establishments' and 'organisations' did not only refer to legal entities as such, but included natural persons, and in this case, particularly, partnerships. Accordingly a partnership running a nursing home was not excluded from exemption from registration under the legislation, and so could not register for VAT.
1 Citers

[ Bailii ]

 
 Royscott Leasing Ltd and others v Customs and Excise Commissioners; ECJ 15-Oct-1999 - Times, 15 October 1999; C-305/97; [1999] EUECJ C-305/97
 
North of England Zoological Society v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 02 November 1999; Gazette, 20 October 1999
20 Oct 1999
QBD

VAT, Education, VAT
For VAT purposes, as opposed to other forms of taxation, educational purposes meant education within a more formal class or lesson type structure. A zoo, open to the public but employing education officers to assist with education of visitors was not exempt from charging VAT upon its entrance fees. The education offered did not come within this definition.
Value Added Tax Act 1994 31 Sch 9, Group 6, 1(a)

 
North of England Zoological Society v Commissioners of Customs and Excise Times, 02 November 1999; Gazette, 20 October 1999
20 Oct 1999
QBD

VAT, Education, VAT
For VAT purposes, as opposed to other forms of taxation, educational purposes meant education within a more formal class or lesson type structure. A zoo, open to the public but employing education officers to assist with education of visitors was not exempt from charging VAT upon its entrance fees. The education offered did not come within this definition.
Value Added Tax Act 1994 31 Sch 9, Group 6, 1(a)

 
Sea Containers Ltd v Customs and Excise [1999] EWHC Admin 853; [2000] STC 82; [2000] BVC 60
26 Nov 1999
Admn
Keene J
VAT
The court was asked whether services and goods supplied were to be treated as one composite supply or as two or more separate supplies for the purposes of the VAT legislation. The two supplies involved were differently rated. Held: The proper approach was to see whether an element (catering) was significant in its own right or whether it was merely ancillary to the dominant part (transport). Keene J found that: "The evidence shows that it [the catering] constituted a very important element in its own right in what was being provided by the appellant. Its significance in these transactions went well beyond the point where it could be seen merely as a way of better enjoying the transport element... it constituted for customers an aim in itself. Not, of course, the sole aim but, given its prominence in the marketing literature, clearly a separate aim from the travel element."
[ Bailii ]
 
Marks and Spencer Plc v Customs and Excise [1999] EWCA Civ 3024; [2000] BTC 5003; [2000] 1 CMLR 256; [2000] Eu LR 293; [2000] STC 16; [2000] STI 22; [2000] BVC 35
14 Dec 1999
CA

European, VAT
The taxpayer discovered that it had over several years made overpayments of VAT on chocolate covered biscuits because of a mistake as to the tax mutual with the defendants. Held: M&S's challenge to section 80(4) (as infringing EU law) failed, as regards the teacakes claim, because the Becker conditions were not satisfied (Becker v Finanzamt Münster-Innenstadt (Case 8/81) [1982] ECR 53) and general principles of Community law could not be relied on in the absence of a directly enforceable right;
(2) M&S's challenge to section 80 (4) failed, as regards the late vouchers claim, for similar reasons, since the Commissioners' failure to apply the amended statute correctly was not equivalent to incorrect transposition; and
(3) M&S's challenge to section 80 (4), as regards the early vouchers, should be referred to the Court of Justice. Schiemann LJ (with whom the other members of the Court agreed) stated ([2000] STC 16, 39): "Marks and Spencer have an alternative submission which I shall consider in the next part of this judgment to the effect that the retrospective legislation is unlawfully discriminatory. I am not, for reasons which I shall shortly explain, persuaded that Marks and Spencer are entitled to judgment on that basis. It follows that a decision on whether it is compatible with Community law to enforce legislation which removes with retrospective effect a right under national law to reclaim VAT, which right has existed unexercised for more than three years, is in my judgment necessary to enable this Court to give judgment on the early vouchers claim. I would therefore be minded to refer this question to the Court of Justice."
Value Added Taxes Act 1994 80(4)
1 Cites

1 Citers

[ Bailii ]
 
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