Linda Skilbeck
Member Since: 2nd May 2012
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Linda is an Assistant Director, VAT with Buzzacott in London and has over 30 years’ experience in VAT. She joined HM Customs and Excise (now HMRC) after University and moved into private practice in the 1980s. She has worked for BDO Stoy Hayward, Grant Thornton and PricewaterhouseCoopers and SOC VAT Consultants where she specialised in advising charities, not for profit organisations and property companies, and as a VAT technical writer.
Linda advises not for profit organisations, charities, and social enterprises on VAT and in particular capital projects, partial exemption, and international services. She is currently Vice chair of the CIOT Indirect Tax Technical Committee and a member of the VAT Practitioners Group.
My answers
Excellent article and long overdue. Most of the responses unfortunately continue with criticism of the symptoms not the cause. The fact is HMRC have faced a perfect storm in the last two decades. Swingeing staff cuts starting with Osborne, underfunding of training and IT, an aging workforce so that expertise was lost, a costly reorganisation (cut) in offices, followed by Brexit which caused a massive change to Customs Excise and VAT, and then Covid. Yes their service levels are terrible, but as the saying goes "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."
You need to check the guidance on what HMRC regard as an "employment business"
That's right. It's supposed to be an anti-fraud measure so VAT due is immediately netted off against VAT reclaimable by the customer. However, the fact that HMRC identifed the biggest source of fraud as being labour-only suppliers, and then excluded them from reverse charge, makes it difficult to see how effective this will be.
But you have to know it's there first! ;-)
Hi
It's in Article 10 of the draft SI here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa... This disapplies s 55A(3) of the VAT Act (which contains provisions relating to VAT registration in respect of domestic reverse charges).
The likelihood of the UK abolishing VAT and returning to a purchase tax system is almost nil. VAT is too big an earner and the amount of upheaval for businesses (on top of the massive upheaval of leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union) would be immense. The Govt is already heavily invested in Making Tax Digital for VAT, to be introduced in April 2019, and has already committed to keeping the UK VAT system largely as it is post Brexit. There is quite enough to do already and an under-resourced HMRC is struggling to keep pace. Richard is right that there will however be lobbying from many sides for changes in rate.
In their initial consultation HMRC identified VAT losses of £100m from missing trader fraud in this sector.
The new rules apply to supplies of services. HMRC said that the meausure was mainly to tackle "labour only" missing trader fraud. So, if you are supplying goods only, nothing will change. However, many builders supply goods along with services eg installation and fitting services. In those circumstances goods and services are supplied together and then there is a decision to be made as to whether that is a supply of goods or of services. That can sometimes be difficult to determine.
There's a useful article in the 13 October 2016 of Taxation magazine on this topic