02 December 2016
Last updated at 10:49
News
UPDATE: VAT to be applied to CON29 fees from January 2017
In October of 2015 HMRC announced that they were seeking implementation of VAT being applied to refined data provided by local councils in the form of enquiries of the CON29R and CON29O.
The application of VAT was first scheduled for February of 2016 but after a number of false starts and delays whilst CIPFA lobbied against the decision, the implementation was suspended and everything went quiet for the second half of 2016.
However, on 30th November 2016, CIPFA posted an announcement on their website that suggested that HMRC has confirmed that VAT will now be applied to the CON29 information in Council Searches from January 2017.
"HMRC has confirmed that VAT is to be imposed on CON29 fees from 1 January 2017. More information will follow in due course.
In giving the 1 January 2017 implementation date, HMRC is seeking to apply the law consistently across the whole UK economy within as reasonable a period as is possible"
- Source - http://www.tisonline.net/taxreference/vat_las/default.asp?content_ref=19526&doc=issues
We have also received confirmation from CoPSO that this is indeed the case.
James-Sherwood Rogers, chairman of CoPSO remarked,
"CoPSO is pleased that the long running saga about adding VAT to CON29 searches produced by local authorities has finally been resolved. There has never been any doubt so far as we are concerned that provision of the CON29 is a non statutory commercial activity and that VAT should therefore be applied. That it has taken the Government and local authorities so many years to address this issue is very regrettable.
At least from 1st January 2017 our members will be able to compete on a level playing field when it comes to the provision of regulated personal searches to their customers."
We will of course update you as soon as more information becomes available.
More News