A stately home is open to visitors, many of whom come on prepaid coach tours. The customer of the stately home is therefore the coach tour operators.
If the stately home provides the tour operators with uniforms in its corporate style (> £50 each) to issue to the coach drivers for wearing during visits, is the input VAT incurred on the purchase of these uniforms reclaimable? Or are they customer gifts, and therefore irrecoverable? (They're extremely high quality, and actually available for purchase in the gift shop - I'd certainly consider them to be a perk despite the branding!)
My hunch is that it's reclaimable, as there's a direct an immediate link to the supplies to the coach companies, and they're also a clear advert for the stately home. But not 100% sure...
Related resources
Replies (6)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
It doesn't sound like a uniform if it's available to purchase in the gift shop!
If the situation is as described ("stately home provides the tour operators with uniforms in its corporate style (> £50 each) to issue to the coach drivers for wearing during visits"), then it does appear to be part of the business being done rather than a random gift to the coach drivers.
It's a different question whether the coach operator feels the drivers are enjoying a reportable benefit!
Good point - although the uniform comprises a shirt, a cap, a gilet, a jacket and trousers - all with corporate logo. I reckon any visitors purchasing all these items from the gift shop and kicking about in them all at once would probably be mistaken for staff.
so the coach company sells tickets to the tourists, and pays the stately home for the right to admit the tourists?
But the stately home wants the tourists to think the coach drivers are their own staff?
Seem odd and potentially risky: if a coach driver misbehaves, what does the stately home do?
Any way back to work....
Another good point - can't see the commercial reasoning for it myself. Perhaps a nice touch (if even that), but pretty much all risk with little benefit.
But the stately home wants the tourists to think the coach drivers are their own staff?
Stately home might not have thought of that - maybe just wants tourists to get in the mood (and buy these things in the gift shop).