In Snow Factor Ltd v HMRC [2020] UKUT 25 (TCC) (21 January 2020) the Upper Tribunal in overriding the decision of the FTT found that the provision of lifts used to transport customers to the top of an indoor ski slope was a reduced rated supply of a cable-suspended passenger transport system under VATA 1994 Sch 7A Group 13 item 1 rather than a standard-rated supply of the right to use the slope.
A charge was made for the use of the lifts; no charge was made for the use of the slope itself although use of the slope without using the lifts involved a degree of effort to which the vast majority of customers was not prepared to commit. A minority (Nordic and freestyle skiers) did however use the slope in that manner.
HMRC contended that there was a standard-rated composite supply;...
