Tax Journal VAT Review for May 2020

This article was first published in the 1 May 2020 edition of Tax Journal who have agreed to Simmons & Simmons making it available online.

This month’s Review covers the decision of the Supreme Court in Zipvit Ltd, involving a reference to the CJEU questions concerning the availability of input VAT recovery where a supply was historically incorrectly treated as exempt. In NHS Lothian Health Board, the Court of Session has suggested that the tribunals have taken an overly strict approach to the evidence required to support historical claims for input VAT recovery going back as far as 1973. The correct contractual analysis of arrangements and its importance for the VAT analysis is again a feature of the Virgin Media case on prompt payment discounts. Finally, the government has announced a number of indirect tax measures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.