The VAT briefing for October 2012

Adjustments to taxable amount: Grattan

On 13 September 2012 Advocate General Kokott delivered her Opinion in Grattan v HMRC
C-310/11) which concerned VAT on payments to Grattan between 1973 and 1977 by ‘agents’ who bought mail-order goods for themselves and/or for on-sale to others following which they received ‘commission’. For the purposes of her Opinion the AG assumed that the commission could be regarded as partial repayment of the purchase price for the goods.

The question referred by the FTT was whether Grattan had a directly effective right to treat the taxable amount for its supply of goods as retrospectively reduced by the amount of the commission paid (under either Article...