High Court Confirms Taxpayer’s Entitlement to VAT Concession for Recovery of Input Tax

• The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust applied for judicial review in relation to a decision by HMRC to deny it a VAT concession.
• The Trust purchased machines used for radiation therapy for cancer patients, known as Linacs, and later supplied them to Healthcare Partners Ltd.
• The Trust believed that this transfer was a business activity and wanted to benefit from a concession that allows NHS members to recover input tax.
• HMRC argued that the Trust was not entitled to the concession because the machines were not intended for a business activity at the time of purchase.
• The High Court held that the concession did apply, noting that there is a distinction between the time of purchase and the time of supply.
• The Trust’s intention for the machines was a business activity at the time of supply, so it was entitled to recover the input tax.
• This case highlights the difference between “purchase” and “supply” and the validity of a party’s intention changing between these stages.

Source: rpc.co.uk

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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