Wirral Independent Recycling Enterprise Ltd v HMRC

In Wirral Independent Recycling Enterprise Ltd v HMRC (TC01960 – 30 April) a limited company (W) was incorporated in 2004 and registered for VAT in 2006. It collected donated furniture selling some of it from a shop and giving some of it to people who were in need. In 2007 it wrote to HMRC applying to be treated as exempt from VAT. HMRC rejected this application on the grounds that W was not a registered charity. W appealed. In June 2010 while the appeal was pending W amended its Articles of Association and was registered as a charity on 26 June 2010. HMRC accepted that W’s supplies qualified for exemption from that date but rejected W’s claim for the exemption to be backdated. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed W’s appeal finding that until it amended its Articles of Association its objectives had...