In HMRC v National Exhibition Centre [2015] UKUT 0023 (20 January 2015) the UT found that a booking fee was charged for a ‘payment card processing service’.
The issue was the VAT treatment of booking fees charged by the National Exhibition Centre (NEC). The NEC owns several venues which it hires out to promoters which stage trade cultural and entertainment events. Through its own box office the NEC sells tickets to those events. It derives its income from various fees including a 10% booking fee generally charged to customers paying by credit card.
Under VATA 1994 Sch 9 group 5 item 1 transactions involving the handling of money are exempt from VAT. The FTT had found that the booking fee was paid for a ‘payment card processing service’ (the ‘supply issue’) exempt from VAT (the ‘exemption issue’).
The supply issue was a factual...