Financial Skills: Tax: VAT: Charities

Scheduled Dates (sort by: location | date)

Course Overview

You are not exempt from VAT merely because you are a charity. However, there are numerous reliefs from which you may be able to benefit. On the other hand, you could be liable for output tax. VAT catches out unsuspecting charities just as it does ordinary businesses.

A number of high profile charities have found themselves in the VAT tribunal. In some cases they won, but it is usually better to avoid the argument in the first place!

This course will cover areas particularly pertinent to charities, such as the special reliefs, as well as giving a review of the main rules.The day will enable you both to consider the impact of VAT upon the affairs of your charity and to meet others with similar problems in this specialised area.

The course is specific to the affairs of charities and deals with the VAT rules applicable to them. It does not cover the ordinary rules. For these, see VAT in Detail - Parts 1 and 2.

Course Outline

• An Introduction to VAT
• Review of the main rules as they affect charities
• Identifying the difference between business and non-business activities
• Taxable outputs
• The special reliefs for charities
• Subscriptions, donations and grants
• Fundraising
• Reliefs for the disabled
• Land and property transactions affecting charities including
• Construction and conversion of buildings
• The treatment of listed buildings
• The option to tax
• Dealing with input tax recovery including:
• Attribution of costs
• Apportionment between business and non-business activities
• The complexities of partial exemption

Financial Skills: Tax: VAT: Charities / CM9689