VAT Concession Allows Recovery of Input Tax on Specialist Radiation Therapy Devices

• The High Court has delivered its judgment in a case for judicial review concerning the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust’s claim for a VAT concession.
• The Trust claims that it is entitled to a concession for the repayment of input tax paid on the purchase of specialist radiation therapy devices.
• The devices were purchased from Varian and the Trust argues that the VAT incurred by NHS Supply Chain, which was passed on to the Trust, is recoverable.
• The Trust is part of the NHS VAT Division and the Concession permits tax deduction for the business activities of entities in this division.
• The Trust initially sought to recover the VAT under VATA94 but was refused as it did not hold a VAT invoice.
• The Trust relies on the Concession and an NHS published Note (1/98) to support its claim for recovery of the input tax.
• The Court held that the Trust falls within the terms of the Concession and Note 1/98 and that HMRC made public law errors in reaching a contrary conclusion.
• Trusts in similar circumstances may consider submitting a claim if they have been refused the use of the concession.

Source: caselaw.nationalarchives.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.

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