Eastern Atlantic Helicopters Ltd v Revenue and Customs (VAT - INPUT TAX : Other)

VAT � Input tax � Sale of helicopter held in name of US entity on trust for civil aviation regulatory purposes to UK appellant � identity of supplier?� whether supply by UK company which provided invoice or by US legal owner trustee � supplier was the UK company which held beneficial interest � appeal allowed� - whether invoice invalid in any case because it referred to previous company name � HMRC to consider exercise of discretion in relation to �other evidence� Regulation 29(2) VAT Regulations 1995

The appellant, Eastern Atlantic Helicopters (�EAH�) buys and sells mainly US manufactured helicopters across the world and also carries out specialist repairs servicing and chartering. It appeals against HMRC�s decision to disallow input tax claimed of �50,310.56 in the VAT period 12/13 on an invoice from MP Helicopters Limited (�MPH�) relating to the sale of a helicopter registered with US Federal Aviation Administration under �N322MC�. HMRC argues:

(1) The helicopter was legally owned by a US trustee, AAA Flight Inc. (�AAA�), who was a non-taxable person and that as the purchase agreement was made between AAA and the appellant, EAH, there was no supply to EAH on which tax could be charged. MPH was not the legal owner.

(2) Even if it was the case that Marshal Parker (�MP�) (the director of MPH) was the owner, then no VAT was chargeable on the transaction as MP was not a taxable person.

(3) The VAT invoice was defective as the company name MPH was wrong (the company having changed its name prior to the date of the invoice to VGEXSYS Ltd. (for the purposes of this decision we shall, reflecting the form of the submissions and documents before us, refer to the company by its previous name MPH)).