In HMRC v London Clubs Management Ltd (UT – 5 October) a company (L) operated 11 casinos which included bar and restaurant facilities. It applied for permission to use a special ‘floor-based’ partial exemption method for apportioning its input tax. HMRC rejected the claim and L appealed.
The First-Tier Tribunal allowed the appeal finding that ‘the food and beverage supplies made by the appellant are made from defined and measurable parts of the appellant’s premises’. Therefore ‘the proposed floor space method does provide a fair and reasonable allocation of such costs as it reflects directly the use of those costs’. The Tribunal specifically distinguished the earlier decision in Aspinall’s Club Ltd (VTD 17797) on the grounds that in that case the Tribunal had found that ‘the catering activities were not conducted for profit’. In the present case however L’s catering activities were ‘businesses...
