In EL Flood & Sons Partnership v HMRC (TC01842 – 9 March) a partnership was asked to replace the bedroom ceiling in a protected building using laths and lime plaster rather than plasterboard. HMRC issued a ruling that VAT was chargeable on the work but the First-tier Tribunal allowed the partnership’s appeal. Judge Nowlan held that since there had been ‘a fundamental change to the fabric’ the work was an ‘approved alteration’ and was not simply ‘repair and maintenance’.
Why it matters: VATA 1994 Sch 8 Group 6 Item 2 provides that many services supplied ‘in the course of an approved alteration of a protected building’ are zero-rated. Group 6 Note 6 provides that an ‘approved alteration’ does not include ‘any works of repair or maintenance’. At first sight the replacement of a ceiling might normally be considered to be ‘repair or...
