You may be paying the more VAT then you need to!

If your Church has charitable status (and most do either in their own right or as part of their denomination) you may be able to save VAT on building work (especially that making provision for disabled people) and even on the cost of advertising.
In most cases you will need to give a declaration of your charitable status to the person or company supplying you. These are of obtainable from Her Majesty's Customs And Excise, and can be downloaded from their website.

Building work

Most churches seem to be aware that new buildings for non-business charitable purposes can be rich zero-rated for VAT. Adaptation of buildings to make them accessible to disabled people can also be zero-rated. The documents specifically mention the provision of rumps, widening of doorways and passages, and the provision of washrooms or lavatories. The provision of lifts seems to be ambiguous. A chair left up a flight of stairs would seem to be zero-rated whereas a normal vertical lift does not. I have asked for clarification on this and will update this page when I have more information.
If the work itself is a zero-rated them all preparatory work and clearing up his zero-rated to. Sadly professional fees for architect's etc are excluded from this provision.
I have not yet been able to clarify whether and loop that systems for the hard of hearing are included in these provisions, they are not specifically mentioned but do seem to come under the general provision. When I have clarification on this point I will update this page. In the meantime if you are making a provision for disabled people in a building used to for charitable purposes you may well be eligible not to pay VAT. You could save yourself a lot of money by asking the appropriate questions!

back to the top

For more information

For more details go to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise website, http://www.hmce.gov.uk/ the documents concerning charities and provision for disabled people are 701/1 (note that this is in two parts) and 701 /7. These are available as pages on
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/701-1.htm
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/701-1pt2.htm
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/notices/701-07.htm .
and as PDF files on
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/graphics/701-1.pdf
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/graphics/701-1pt2.pdf
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/forms/graphics/701-7.pdf

back to the top

Advertisements

This provision applies to adverts used for fund-raising purposes, publicising it the objectives and activities of the charity's or courses which the charity provides. This should mean that advertising Alpha courses is the zero rated, but do should also mean that advertising services, for example at Christmas is also be zero-rated.
The provision also applies to preparation of artwork etc for printed media adverts in leaflets or newspapers. Zero-rating for TV and radio advertising only applies to broadcasting costs however.

I would be grateful if Anybody with first-hand experience of getting any of these services and zero-rated we get in touch with me so that I can pass on your experiences.

back to the top