HMRC v Greenisland Football Club

In HMRC v Greenisland Football Club [2018] UKUT 440 (18 December 2018) the UT found that the FTT had been wrong to find that a clubhouse qualified as ‘village hall or similar building’ (VATA 1994 Sch 8 Group 5 item 2 note 6) but found that its manager had a reasonable excuse for issuing a zero-rating certificate.

Greenisland Football Club (GFC) had been established to promote ‘fitness advanced education and facilitate social development particularly in relation to 10-18 year olds’ and part of the area it served fell into the top 26% of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland. The issue was the VAT chargeable in relation to construction services provided to the club for the building of a new clubhouse. The clubhouse comprised an office a meeting room a gym a function room a kitchen and showers etc. It was...