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Not fair!

05 October 2010
Issue: 4275 / Categories: Forum & Feedback , VAT
A VAT-registered client originally treated his supplies as exempt from VAT, but was subsequently advised by HMRC that output tax should be paid. Having paid this from his profit, he has now discovered that the supplies should be exempt

My client runs a website. Between 2003 and 2005 he was paid commission for the sort of services that have recently been held to be exempt from VAT in the Insurancewide.com ([2010] EWCA Civ 422).

To start with he treated them as exempt but was then told to account for output tax by HMRC. He did not appeal this decision and paid over 7/47ths of the amounts paid by his customers.

He could not increase his prices because the customers were insurance companies who could not recover the VAT. After 2005 he stopped providing this sort of service.

He read about the Insurancewide decision and naturally feels aggrieved. He had been accounting for VAT correctly but was told by HMRC to pay more money than they were entitled to.

He has now asked for it back but has been refused because of...

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