In SAE Education v HMRC [2017] EWCA Civ 1116 (28 July 2017) the Court of Appeal found that a corporate body was not a college of a university so that it was not an eligible body under VATA 1994 Sch 9 Group 6 item 1.
The issue was whether supplies of education made by SAE were exempt or standard rated. This depended upon whether SAE was an ‘eligible body’. SAE argued that it was a college of Middlesex University (MU) and as such fell within note 1(b).
The court first observed referring to Leicester University [2002] STC 147 that in order to succeed SAE must establish that it was part of the university on the basis of a legal relationship and not simply a suitable educational provider to which the university had outsourced the courses that it had been unable to provide...
