London College of Computing Ltd v HMRC

In London College of Computing Ltd v HMRC (TC02028 – 13 June) a company (L) provided computer tuition. Initially it accounted for VAT on its supplies but it subsequently submitted a repayment claim on the basis that it should have treated them as exempt supplies of education. HMRC rejected the claim on the basis that L was not an eligible body. L appealed contending that it had an ‘articulation agreement’ with Middlesex University and should therefore be treated as a college of that university. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the appeal. Judge Walters held that the agreement would have been capable of constituting L as a college of the university provided that the arrangements ‘were as a matter of fact rendered a reality by the student careers of (L’s) students taken as a whole’. On the evidence it appeared that only a minority of...