Lady Margaret Hall v HMRC

In Lady Margaret Hall v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 1092 (12 December 2014) the FTT found that a university college was making exempt supplies of accommodation to its students.

The issue was whether the supplies of term-time accommodation by an Oxford University college to students of the college were standard rated or exempt. The college had entered into an agreement with a subsidiary which was to supply the accommodation under a licence of the property granted by the college.

Applying Secret Hotels2 [2014] UKSC 16 the FTT looked for any variation of the contracts (between the college and its subsidiary and between the subsidiary and the students) by post-contract conduct. The FTT noted that the college advertised the rooms received payments and dealt with complaints. It also set the terms of the supply of accommodation and bore the risk of non-payment by...