VATupdate Newsletter Week 27 2025

LINES

Summer is a great time to be a cyclist. Long days, dry roads, warm mornings—it’s as if nature itself wants you out on two wheels. Whether it’s road biking through the countryside, gravel grinding in the woods, or navigating the rocks on a mountain trail, there’s a certain freedom in the wind on your face and the sound of your tires humming beneath you.

But summer, for all its sunshine and glory, has one cruel joke for us cyclists.

It reveals the lines.

You know what I mean. Those bold, unforgiving tan lines. Arms tanned from wrist to just above the elbow. Legs golden from ankle to mid-thigh. And the rest? A blinding shade of white that could serve as a warning beacon on a foggy coast. You arrive at the beach or pool, take off your shirt, and suddenly look like a poorly painted flag.

And the stares? Oh, they’re not subtle. People look at you like you’ve lost a bet with the sun.

But you accept it, because it tells a story. It’s the story of every ride, every climb, every descent. It’s not just sun—it’s effort, commitment, and a little bit of madness. And like any good tax advisor, I can’t help but see a VAT parallel here.

VAT, too, has its lines.

Lines between taxed and exempt. Between goods and services. Between business and private use. Between domestic supply and intra-Community acquisition. But these lines, unlike your cycling tan, aren’t always clear. They shift. They blur. They invite interpretation.

One such example? Mixed-use goods or services—where something is partly for business and partly for private use. Think of a car used for deliveries during the day and for family trips on weekends. Or a phone contract that blurs the line between team meetings and Instagram scrolls.

How do you allocate the VAT deduction in those cases? Pro-rata? Based on use? On floor space? On time? The lines here matter. They define how much VAT you get back—or lose. And unlike your leg tan, these aren’t lines you want to get wrong.

In fact, in VAT, a clear line is something to be cherished. It gives certainty. Predictability. Peace of mind. Which is why we spend so much time drawing, defending, and interpreting them.

And just like missing a spot with sunscreen, unclear VAT lines have a nasty habit of burning you—usually when the audit comes around.

So yes, I might look ridiculous at the pool. But I wear those lines with pride.

Because whether it’s on skin or in VAT, the lines we draw say a lot about where we’ve been—and where we’re headed.

If you have any comments, questions, or ideas that you want to share with us, please send us an email at [email protected] or leave a comment under the posts of this newsletter on LinkedIn.

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