VAT briefing for November 2013

Key recent developments in VAT are as follows: in AN Checker, the FTT held that, on the facts, a taxpayer could not apply a reduced rate of VAT to an individual element of a single composite supply; in Pactor Vastgoed, the CJEU held that tax authorities can only recover amounts due following the adjustment of a VAT deduction from the person who obtained that deduction; the European Commission has published a proposal for an EU standard VAT declaration and launched a consultation on the VAT treatment of public bodies and exemptions in the public interest; and the AG in Granton Advertising opined that the issue and sale of transferable discount cards was not exempt from VAT as a transaction in ‘other securities’ or ‘other negotiable instruments’.