In Bookit v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 856 (1 September 2014) the FTT held that there had been no abuse but referred the VAT treatment of card handling services to the CJEU.
Bookit a subsidiary of Odeon Cinemas charged card handling fees to customers making advance bookings for cinema tickets.
Until 2001 Odeon had provided these services itself. After consulting Deloitte & Touche it had then restructured its ticket sales in order to ensure that the card handling fees were exempt from VAT. The issue was whether the card handling services were ‘transactions concerning payment’ (Sixth VAT Directive art 135(1)(d)) and therefore prima facie exempt; and if so whether they were excluded from the exemption by virtue of constituting debt collection services.
The FTT felt unable to distinguish the provision of financial information without which a payment could not be made but which...
