WM Morrison Supermarkets Ltd v HMRC

In WM Morrison Supermarkets Ltd v HMRC (TC02052 – 19 June) a company (W) sold disposable barbecues. It accounted for VAT at the standard rate. It subsequently submitted a repayment claim on the basis that it should have treated part of the consideration as attributable to supplies of charcoal and as taxable at the reduced rate. HMRC rejected the claim and W appealed. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the appeal applying the principles laid down in Card Protection Plan Ltd [1999] STC 270. Judge Cannan held that ‘it is not open to a taxpayer to carve out an element of what would otherwise be treated as a single supply in order to apply a reduced rate to that element of the supply’.

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Why it matters: The First-tier Tribunal upheld HMRC’s view that sales of disposable barbecues were chargeable to VAT at the...