VAT Liability and the Implications of Commercial Property Transactions

Overview

How to plan for maximum advantage and avoid costly mistakes

The option to tax is a major VAT planning tool but you have got to get the detail right to take full advantage – and getting it wrong can be very costly.

There are a mass of rules and regulations concerning the option to tax and this report provides valuable expert guidance to all of them.

Other key areas of difficulty covered include transfers of going concerns and capital goods scheme regulations – both of which contain traps for the unwary.

All traps are avoidable. The report highlights the traps and explains how to avoid them.

Who should buy this report?

This is an essential report for the non VAT specialist involved in property transactions either as an investor, occupier or professional advisor.

5 reasons why this report is especially valuable

• Offers a clear and comprehensive overview of a complex subject
• Contains key planning points, tips and techniques
• Shows you where the traps and pitfalls lie and how to avoid them
• Provides guidance on VAT liability and accounting issues
• Written by a VAT expert and previous VAT Inspector

This report is written at a time of great uncertainty in the VAT and property world. At the time of writing important decisions of the European Court of Justice are awaited, particularly the Halifax case (see Chapter 9).

This report deals with the complexities of UK and EU legislation, and provides an invaluable overview of the implications of commercial property transactions.

Residential property transactions are covered where they relate to conversions to residential from non-residential property.

Content

Summary of contents

• VAT general principles
• Property transactions
• Land and licence to occupy land
• Option to VAT
• VAT on transactions relating to leases
• Calculating recoverable VAT in the property sector
• Capital goods scheme
• Transfer of going concerns
• VAT avoidance
• Conversion to dwellings and RRP buildings
• Option to tax – past, present and future
• Appendix – ten tips and ten traps

The author

Tim Buss, AITT is a VAT Director with accountants and business advisors PKF, specialising in VAT and property issues. He has represented clients at VAT tribunals including SEH Holdings referred to in this report. Prior to joining PKF in 1989, he spent 16 years in H.M. Customs & Excise (Customs) as a VAT inspector. Tim Buss is an associate and council member of the Institute of Indirect Taxation and in 2002 was appointed the Institute’s Director of Education. He writes and lectures regularly on a range of VAT issues.