In The King (oao Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust) v HMRC [2023] EWHC 2354 (Admin) (22 September 2023) the High Court (HC) held that an NHS trust was entitled to the benefit of a VAT concession in a successful judicial review claim.
The application to the HC concerned a concession under which NHS divisions were entitled to refunds of amounts equivalent to input VAT when a central NHS purchasing function (NHS supply chain) acquired goods for the purposes of their business activities.
The NHS had a unique structure for VAT purposes. The trust was part of an NHS VAT division which was not a formal VAT group or divisional registration (under VATA ss 43 or 46). However HMRC treated all English NHS bodies as if they were part of the same registration even though they were separately registered and submitted individual VAT returns. NHS supply chain was also part of...
