In Blue Lagoon Beach Hotel & Co Ltd [2023] UKPC 24 (4 July 2023) the UK’s Privy Council held that a Mauritian hotel operator was obliged to account for VAT on rooms paid for in advance by travel operators which ultimately went unoccupied.
This is an unusual case in which an appeal relating to the tax system of a Commonwealth country is heard by the UK’s Privy Council as the highest court of appeal. Although the case relates to the Mauritian VAT code it will be of interest to UK practitioners because it was heard by a panel of senior UK judges and because all sides agreed that the terms of the Mauritius VATA 1998 should be construed in line with the corresponding provisions in the UK’s VATA 1994.
Blue Lagoon Beach Hotel & Co Ltd (Blue Lagoon) operated a hotel in Mauritius. It entered into one-year contracts with travel...
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