Lowcost Holidays v HMRC

Cathya Djanogly

In Lowcost Holidays v HMRC [2017] UKFTT 463 (5 June 2017) the FTT found that an internet provider of holiday accommodation was acting as agent and was therefore not within the scope of the Tour Operators’ Margin Scheme (TOMS).

The issue was whether Lowcost provided holiday accommodation to customers as a principal dealing in its own name under the Principal VAT Directive 2006/112 art 306 and therefore came within TOMS; or whether it acted solely as an intermediary or agent applying the principles set out in SecretHotels2 [2012] EWCA Civ 1571.

The FTT observed that there was no suggestion that the agreements entered into by Lowcost were shams. They should therefore be used to determine the nature of Lowcost’s legal relationships.

The FTT found that the contracts with customers made it clear that Lowcost was acting as agent. The fact that customers paid funds into...

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