1st Contact Ltd v Revenue & Customs

Mr Rivett, counsel, instructed by the General Counsel and Solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs for the Respondents

This is an appeal against assessments raised by the Respondents (� HMRC �) for VAT periods 09/05, 12/05, 03/06, 06/06, 09/06, 12/06, 03/07, 06/07 and 09/07.� The original amounts in the assessment for the first four of these periods have already been revised by HMRC.� At the hearing of this appeal it was common ground that the appeal now concerns a single issue, which was formulated in the Appellant�s skeleton argument as follows :

Did certain of the Appellant�s customers who received supplies of foreign exchange and money remittance services belong outside the United Kingdom for the purposes of s.9(3) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (�VATA 1994�) and Article 56 of Council Directive 2006/112/EC (the �Principal VAT Directive�) (previously article 9(2)(e) of Council Directive 77/388/EEC (the �Sixth Directive�)) with the consequence that input tax attributable to such supplies is available for credit under s.26 VATA 1994?

Section 31 VATA provides that � A supply of goods or services is an exempt supply if it is of a description for the time being specified in Schedule 9 ... �

Schedule 9 VATA, at Group 5, item 1 specifies � The issue, transfer or receipt of, or any dealing with, money, any security for money or any note or order for the payment of money �.