- VAT Treatment Update: Following an Upper Tribunal decision in January 2025, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) updated the VAT treatment for supplies made by charities and qualifying bodies during fundraising events, clarifying the criteria for event qualification under Group 12, Schedule 9 of the VAT Act 1994.
- Event Qualification Criteria: Charities must ensure that fundraising events are primarily organized for raising funds and promoted as such, although an event can have multiple purposes. Events that are semi-regular activities, like operating shops or bars, do not qualify for exemption, and incidental profit-making does not meet the criteria.
- Regulatory Compliance: The updated guidance emphasizes that fundraising events must be extraordinary and not part of regular business operations, maintaining existing limits of 15 similar events per fiscal year at the same location, alongside an unchanged anti-competition clause to prevent market distortion.
Source gov.uk
