Following the ruling of the CJEU in EC v Kingdom of Spain (C-189/11) that supplies of travel related services to other businesses (‘wholesale supplies’) are within the scope of the tour operators’ margin scheme (TOMS), HMRC has announced that it would not amend the UK rules (which do not allow the application of TOMS to wholesale supplies) to bring them in line with the ruling (Revenue & Customs Brief 05/14). This is because changes to the TOMS regime are expected to take place in the future in any event. Consequently, UK businesses wishing to operate TOMS on wholesale supplies can only attempt to rely on the ‘direct effect’ of the ruling. The CJEU also ruled that the TOMS calculation should be carried out on an individual transaction basis.
Following the ruling of the CJEU in EC v Kingdom of Spain (C-189/11) that supplies of travel related services to other businesses (‘wholesale supplies’) are within the scope of the tour operators’ margin scheme (TOMS), HMRC has announced that it would not amend the UK rules (which do not allow the application of TOMS to wholesale supplies) to bring them in line with the ruling (Revenue & Customs Brief 05/14). This is because changes to the TOMS regime are expected to take place in the future in any event. Consequently, UK businesses wishing to operate TOMS on wholesale supplies can only attempt to rely on the ‘direct effect’ of the ruling. The CJEU also ruled that the TOMS calculation should be carried out on an individual transaction basis.
