In Mill House Management UK Ltd v HMRC (TC00960 – 16 February) a company (M) had purported to charge VAT to tenants of a serviced office block from 2005 to 2008 but had neither registered for VAT nor accounted for the purported VAT. In May 2008 M submitted what it described as a ‘belated notification’ of an option to tax. HMRC declined to accept the notification and the Tribunal dismissed M’s appeal. Judge Mitting observed that ‘making a legally effective election to waive exemption is a two-stage process the first stage being to make the decision to opt to tax and the second being to notify such decision to the Commissioners’. M had not produced any ‘satisfactory or clear evidence from which the Tribunal could conclude that a positive decision to opt had been made. It followed that if no decision had been made there could not...
