In Golf Holidays Worldwide Ltd v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 701 (TC) (3 August 2023) the FTT held that a decision to rely on the direct effect of EU law which turned out to be unfavourable to a taxpayer was not an ‘error’ and could not be corrected via the VAT error correction procedure.
The UK VAT legislation excludes wholesale travel supplies from falling under the tour operator’s margin scheme (TOMS). However following a CJEU judgment in EC Commission v Kingdom of Spain (Case C-189/11) and HMRC Brief 5/14 some businesses have relied on the ‘direct effect’ of EU law to include wholesale supplies within their TOMS calculations. Taxpayers have therefore effectively had a choice of whether or not to use the TOMS for wholesale supplies.
The appellant (Golf) had included wholesale supplies within the TOMS. In so doing it was relying on the direct effect of EU law (albeit...
