In Colaingrove Limited the Upper Tribunal (UT) this week was required to decide whether the supply of electricity to a mobile home was an independent supply, or just one element of part of an overall supply of holiday accommodation.

This is a notoriously difficult area of VAT as the recent case of WM Morrison Supermarket Limited (“Morrisons”) demonstrates.  In this case disposable barbecues (standard rated) were sold with charcoal (reduced rated when sold independently) and the UT decided that it was not possible to carve out the reduced rated element form the overall supply so the whole supply was standard rated.

In Colaingrove a flat-rate charge was made to holidaymakers who paid it as part of the hire charge for self-catering accommodation in mobile homes.  The appellant argued that the electricity charge was separately identifiable and quantifiable and should consequently be treated as a reduced rated (5% rather than 20%) independent supply.

The logic in Morrisons was applied in this case and the UT ruled that the charge for the electricity should properly be included in the price of the standard rated holiday accommodation.  The charge should not be split out, so the entire charge for the accommodation was standard rated, including the specified sum charged for the electricity.

The judge acknowledged that this case was not an easy one to decide and that the arguments advanced on behalf of the taxpayer were both powerful and attractive. It would seem likely that an appeal to the Court of Appeal will be made.

This case further illustrates that care must be taken when analysing the VAT treatment of supplies.  There is significant case law on this matter, but there still remains a certain overlap and sometimes conflicting opinions.  The precise facts of the matter are very important when determining whether supplies are compound or multiple for VAT purposes.

Overview

Whether there is a compound or multiple supply is determined by the tests set out in the Card Protection Plan case, namely; firstly, whether there is a principal element of the supply to which all other parts are ancillary and, secondly, whether, in the eyes of the customer, the ancillary element provides a means of better enjoying the principal element. If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then there is a single supply.