HMRC v London Clubs Management Ltd

In HMRC v London Clubs Management Ltd (CA – 18 November) a group of companies operated eleven UK casinos which included bar and restaurant facilities. It applied for permission to use a special ‘floor-based’ partial exemption method for apportioning its input tax. HMRC rejected the claim and the representative member of the group appealed. The First-Tier Tribunal allowed the appeal finding that ‘the food and beverage supplies made by the appellant are made from defined and measurable parts of the appellant’s premises’ and specifically distinguishing the earlier decision in Aspinall’s Club Ltd (VTD 17797) on the grounds that in that case the Tribunal had found that ‘the catering activities were not conducted for profit’. In the present case however the catering activities were ‘businesses in their own right’ and were ‘not merely ancillary to the gaming business’. The Upper Tribunal...