Hastings Insurance Services v HMRC

In Hastings Insurance Services v HMRC [2018] UKFTT 27 (19 January 2018) the FTT found that a company which outsourced some of its functions to the UK did not have a fixed establishment there.

Hastings is an insurance services company operating in the UK. Advantage is a company related to Hastings and based in Gibraltar which underwrites UK private and commercial motorcar and motorcycle insurance. Advantage had made supplies of insurance to UK customers acting through Hastings as its broker or intermediary. The issue was whether Hastings could recover input tax attributable to supplies of broking underwriting support and claims handling services made to Advantage.

If the supplies of services by Hastings were made in the UK they fell under the insurance services exemption (VATA 1994 Sch 9 Group 2 item 4) and Hastings could not recover the related input tax. However the position...