Market leading insight for tax experts
View online issue

VAT, the NHS and business activities

Denis Edwards (Temple Tax Chambers) considers what a recent tribunal decision means for the VAT treatment of the NHS business activities.

The recent decision of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) in Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 71 provides further guidance on the VAT treatment of the business activities of the NHS.

The NHS trust is a statutory body providing hospital and health services as part of the NHS. In this case the trust charged patients visitors and hospital staff for the right to park vehicles at its hospitals. It was common ground that the trust’s statutory functions as an NHS body are not ‘economic activities’ for the purposes of article 13 of the Principal VAT Directive (PVD). Accordingly the trust’s provision of NHS medical services is a non-business activity and falls outside the scope of VAT. The question for the FTT was whether...

If you or your firm subscribes to Taxjournal.com, please click the login box below:

If you do not subscribe but are a registered user, please enter your details in the following boxes:

Alternatively, you can register free of charge to read a limited amount of subscriber content per month.
Once you have registered, you will receive an email directing you back to read this article in full.
Please reach out to customer services at +44 (0) 330 161 1234 or 'customer.services@lexisnexis.co.uk' for further assistance.
EDITOR'S PICKstar
Top