The Upper Tribunal’s decision to uphold the First-tier Tribunal's ruling in Astral creates opportunity, but also uncertainty regarding what counts as the construction of a new building. Graham Elliott (Withers) examines the issues
I am not always interested in Upper Tribunal decisions when they simply confirm the earlier conclusions of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT). However an exception to this has to be made for HMRC v Astral Construction Ltd [2015] UKUT 0021.
The case boldly explores one of the most intricate of VAT subjects: construction. Construction presents disparate facts to interpret alongside potentially ambiguous VAT legislation. Astral deals with the threshold between the reduced and zero rates.
The final ‘product’ was a new nursing home. Before the work started no nursing home existed; and when finished a new nursing home had...
