People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals v HMRC

In People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals v HMRC (TC02048 – 20 June) a charity provided free medical or surgical treatment to animals whose owners could not afford to pay for a veterinary surgeon. In 2009 it claimed a repayment of input tax backdated to 1993 on the payments it had made for veterinary services. HMRC rejected the claim considering firstly that the relevant supplies were not an ‘economic activity’ and additionally that the vets had supplied their services to the owners of the animals rather than to the charity. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the charity’s appeal against this decision specifically distinguishing the earlier decision in Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [1991] VATTR 407 (VTD 6218) on the grounds that in that case the owners of the pets had been ‘given a...