VAT treatment of property search fees charged by solicitors and conveyancers

Policy paper – Revenue and Customs Brief 6 (2020). This brief announces the withdrawal of the postal concession from 1 December 2020. Historically and by way of a concession, HMRC allowed solicitors to treat postal search fees as disbursements and outside the scope of VAT even though they did not fully meet the disbursement criteria. Following the Brabners case, this concession will be removed from 1 December 2020. All search fees will now be treated as standard rate and part of the supply of services.

Sources:

• gov.uk
• centurionvat.com
• Deeks

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