- VAT treatment update for charity and qualifying body fundraising events after Upper Tribunal decision in January 2025
- Charities and qualifying bodies must read this if planning fundraising events
- Group 12, Schedule 9, VAT Act 1994 allows exemption for certain fundraising event supplies
- Events must be primarily organized to raise money for the charity or qualifying body
- Semi-regular or continuous activities like shops or bars do not qualify
- Upper Tribunal decision clarified qualifying events for exemption
- Events can have more than one primary purpose, including fundraising
- Events must be promoted as fundraising events, not necessarily as the primary purpose
- HMRC policy requires the primary purpose to be fundraising and advertised as such
- Charities must provide evidence if an event has multiple primary purposes
- Events not primarily organized to raise funds but incidentally profitable do not qualify
- Fundraising events should be extraordinary, not routine
- Limit of 15 events of the same kind in the same location per fiscal year remains
- Anti-competition clause to prevent distortion with similar event suppliers remains unchanged
Source: gov.uk
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
