Online 'conduits' not VAT-exempt

Following the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Insurancewide and Trader Media Group, HMRC have published Revenue & Customs Brief 31/10.

The two companies provided click-through services from their websites to the sites of insurers, brokers and similar firms.

The court found that the companies were insurance intermediaries for the purposes of the VAT exemption and an act of introduction, with no further involvement in the intermediation of the contract of insurance, qualified for exemption as an insurance related service.

The brief explains that HMRC now accept that insurance introductory services will be exempt from VAT only when a provider is doing much more than acting as a ‘mere conduit’ through which a potential customer is passed to a provider.

Issue: 4268 / Categories: News , VAT