Tui Travel PLC v HMRC (and related appeals)

In Tui Travel PLC v HMRC (and related appeals) (TC02493 – 12 February) a large group of holiday companies submitted claims for substantial repayments of VAT contending that they had overpaid output tax because they had not deducted the value of discounts given to customers from commission which they had earned for acting as an agent. HMRC rejected the claims and the First-tier Tribunal dismissed the companies’ appeals. Judge Connell observed that the claims related to cases where the companies were acting as agents or brokers and did not ‘enter into contractual relations with the customer with regard to the supply of the holiday’. He held that the amounts which the companies had contributed towards the total cost of the holidays were ‘mis-characterised when referred to as a discount. In reality there was no...