Installation of pre-formed funeral burial vaults

The taxpayer installed flexible pre-formed burial vaults – described as the advance digging of multiple graves – for a separate supplier RED Landscapes which made an onward charge to the owners of the burial site Elysium Gardens Ltd. The taxpayer treated its services as exempt from VAT under VATA 1994 Sch 9 Group 8 item (2) as a service that involved the ‘making of arrangements for or in connection with the disposal of the remains of the dead’. The reason for installing the vaults was to deal with ‘unsafe soil’.

HMRC considered that the supplies had to be directly related with the disposal of the remains of a dead person to qualify for exemption. It claimed that the exemption related only to services provided by undertakers not subcontractors such as the taxpayer. Building subcontractors were not concerned or skilled in disposing of the remains...