In Honourable Society of Middle Temple v HMRC (TC01245 – 13 July) trustees of certain land in the City of London leased several properties used as barristers’ chambers to tenants.
The trustees had opted to tax the properties. The tenants were supplied with water.
In accounting for VAT the trustees treated part of the rent paid by the tenants as attributable to a zero-rated supply of water.
HMRC issued a ruling that the trustees were making a single supply of a leased property and that none of the consideration qualified for zero-rating.
The tribunal allowed the trustees’ appeal. Judge Khan expressed the view that it would be ‘an economic distortion’ to treat ‘the supply of water under a commercial lease granted by the Middle Temple to its tenants as a standard-rated supply because...
