Matthew Davies trading as Special Occasions/2XL Limos v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2012] UKUT 130 (TCC), [2012] All ER (D) 59 (Sep) Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber)
Judge Howard Nowlan and Judge Greg Sinfield, 24 Apr 2012
If vehicles in question have been adapted so as to carry less than ten persons, that fact is fatal to any claim that the supplies of transport services with the vehicles in question should be zero-rated under the Value Added Tax Act 1994, Sch 8, Group 8 Item 4(a). It is immaterial that the vehicles might have been originally designed for the transportation of ten or more persons.
Nigel Gibbon of Northgate Company Services Ltd for the taxpayer. Ewan West (instructed by the General Counsel and Solicitor to Revenue and Customs) for the Revenue.
The Value Added Tax Act 1994 (VAT 1994), Sch 8, Group 8 Item 4(a) provided that zero rating applied to “transport of passengers… in any vehicle, ship or aircraft, designed or adapted to carry not less than 10 passengers”.
The taxpayer’s business supplied stretched limousines. All of the vehicles
