Eligibility of a cricket club for zero rating on construction of a pavilion

Eynsham Cricket Club (ECC) built a pavilion for the use of members and the local community. It considered it was a charity and therefore it could receive zero-rated building services from its contractor (VATA 1994 Sch 8 group 5). However although it was a community amateur sports club (CASC) it was not registered with the Charity Commission.

HMRC refused the claim. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the club’s appeal so the matter progressed to the Upper Tribunal.

The Upper Tribunal said it was common ground that a purpose of Charities Act 2006 s 5(4) was to absolve CASCs from having to comply with the requirements of registering as a charity. A CASC that wished to take advantage of the tax benefits of being a charity could deregister as a CASC and register as a charity but it could not be both a CASC...