Value Added Tax Act 1994

24 Input tax and output tax

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section,“input tax”, in relation to a taxable person, means the following tax, that is to say—

(a) VAT on the supply to him of any goods or services;

(b) VAT on the acquisition by him from another member State of any goods; and

(c) VAT paid or payable by him on the importation of any goods from a place outside the member States,

being (in each case) goods or services used or to be used for the purpose of any business carried on or to be carried on by him.

(2) Subject to the following provisions of this section,“output tax”, in relation to a taxable person, means VAT on supplies which he makes or on the acquisition by him from another member State of goods (including VAT which is also to be counted as input tax by virtue of subsection (1)(b) above).

(3) For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2) above, where goods or services are supplied to a company, goods are acquired by a company from another member State or goods are imported by a company from a place outside the member States and the goods or services which are so supplied, acquired or imported are used or to be used in connection with the provision of accommodation by the company, they shall not be treated as used or to be used for the purposes of any business carried on by the company to the extent that the accommodation is used or to be used for domestic purposes by—

(a) a director of the company, or

(b) a person connected with a director of the company.

(4) The Treasury may by order provide with respect to any description of goods or services that, where goods or services of that description are supplied to a person who is not a taxable person, they shall, in such circumstances as may be specified in the order, be treated for the purposes of subsections (1) and (2) above as supplied to such other person as may be determined in accordance with the order.

(5) Where goods or services supplied to a taxable person, goods acquired by a taxable person from another member State or goods imported by a taxable person from a place outside the member States are used or to be used partly for the purposes of a business carried on or to be carried on by him and partly for other purposes, VAT on supplies, acquisitions and importations shall be apportioned so that only so much as is referable to his business purposes is counted as his input tax.

(6) Regulations may provide—

(a) for VAT on the supply of goods or services to a taxable person, VAT on the acquisition of goods by a taxable person from other member States and VAT paid or payable by a taxable person on the importation of goods from places outside the member States to be treated as his input tax only if and to the extent that the charge to VAT is evidenced and quantified by reference to such documents as may be specified in the regulations or the Commissioners may direct either generally or in particular cases or classes of cases;

(b) for a taxable person to count as his input tax, in such circumstances, to such extent and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, VAT on the supply to him of goods or services or on the acquisition of goods by him from another member State or paid by him on the importation of goods from places outside the member States notwithstanding that he was not a taxable person at the time of the supply, acquisition or payment;

(c) for a taxable person that is a body corporate to count as its input tax, in such circumstances, to such extent and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, VAT on the supply, acquisition or importation of goods before the company’s incorporation for appropriation to the company or its business or on the supply of services before that time for its benefit or in connection with its incorporation;

(d) in the case of a person who has been, but is no longer, a taxable person, for him to be paid by the Commissioners the amount of any VAT on a supply of services made to him for the purposes of the business carried on by him when he was a taxable person.

(7) For the purposes of this section“director” means—

(a) in relation to a company whose affairs are managed by a board of directors or similar body, a member of that board or similar body;

(b) in relation to a company whose affairs are managed by a single director or similar person, that director or person;

(c) in relation to a company whose affairs are managed by the members themselves, a member of the company,

and a person is connected with a director if that person is the director’s wife or husband, or is a relative, or the wife or husband of a relative, of the director or of the director’s wife or husband.