HMRC v Able UK Ltd

In HMRC v Able UK Ltd (CJEU Case C-225/11) a UK company supplied ‘ship decommissioning services’ to the US Navy. HMRC issued a ruling that it was required to account for VAT on these supplies. The company appealed contending that they qualified for exemption under Article 151(1)(c) of EC Directive 2006/112/EC. The Upper Tribunal directed that the case should be referred to the CJEU which held that Article 151(1)(c) ‘must be interpreted as meaning that a supply of services such as that at issue in the main proceedings made in a Member State party to the North Atlantic Treaty and consisting in dismantling obsolete ships of the Navy of another State party to that treaty is exempt from VAT under that provision only where those services are supplied for staff of the armed forces of that other state taking part in the...