VALUE ADDED NEWS: VAT & INDIRECT TAX UPDATES – SEPTEMBER 2021

Your one-page September Indirect tax summary. Grab yourself a fruit and vegetable juice and by the time you have drunk it and considered whether it is a beverage or food, you’ll be up to date.

CASES:

• Company submitting claims for mis-sold PPI considered themselves to be an insurance agent and fall under the insurance intermediary VAT exemption. Claims Advisory Group lost their appeal – their services were too remote and concerned with the way that PPI was sold and not the policy itself.
• Are you considering a property purchase, where the property has both residential and non-residential use? You might be entitled to a lower rate of SDLT but can be tricky to prove and you need to consider the use of the land. Read The How Development 1 Ltd
• If you wish to request a statutory review or submit an appeal, the 30 day period is an effective remedy and a taxpayer who fails to exercise that right should not expect to be allowed to submit a late appeal. Read Hampton George Hewitt
• What is a business for the purposes of recovering input tax? Need to consider the Lord Fisher tests and the principles laid down in Wakefield College regarding ‘whether the company’s supplies were made for the purposes of obtaining income on a continuing basis’
  See Babylon Farm Limited

NORTHERN IRELAND:

• A form to appoint a UK tax representative if you’re distance selling to Northern Ireland has been published
• HMRC have updated their guidance with additional information to the VAT treatment of distance selling between Northern Ireland and the EU with effect from 1 July 2021.

IMPORT VAT:

• Problems understanding monthly postponed import VAT statements? See new guidance from HMRC here
• HMRC also released information to address an issue with monthly VAT statements – if you’ve used simplified declarations for imports, see the updated information on how to deal with this.

HMRC UPDATES:

• HMRC updated their guidance to state when you cannot import goods on a simplified frontier declaration.
• Details on record keeping requirements for goods arriving into and leaving Freeport customs site operators can be found here.
• Guidance on the use of suppliers declarations to support proof of origin has been updated with information on how to pay less Customs Duty on goods from a country with a UK trade agreement.
• Guidance has been released explaining new safety and security declarations applying from 1 October 2021 on goods leaving GB post-Brexit.
• Submit your One Stop Shop Return and VAT Payment guidance was released this month, to help businesses registered for the OSS Union Scheme complete and submit the OSS Return and pay the VAT due.
• SDLT – Confirmation of appropriate steps where contingent consideration is later ascertained and updated examples of contingent or uncertain consideration. See here
• New online service and checklist for PESM applications – HMRC have launched a new online service for submitting proposals for partial exemption special methods (PESMs). Notice 706 has also been updated with a checklist setting out 43 pieces of information
  that must accompany a PESM proposal.
• VAT liability of Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing services: The service of COVID-19 testing is treated as medical care where it involves administration of the test to the patient and the provision of the results by a medical professional. See here