THE BUSINESS OF VAT ON TRAVEL

DAMON WRIGHT

DIRECTOR OF VAT SERVICES – MHA MACINTYRE HUDSON

Agenda

• Travel Management Companies• UK TOMS

• EU place of supply

• Recovery of VAT

Agenda (2)

• Exhibitions• Admission and/or other services

• Supplies of land, land related or advertising

• With travel?

Agenda (3)

• Events and Conferences• Admission

• Organisation/management

• Education

• With travel?

Travel management companies

• Removal of UK TOMS concessions

• From 1 January 2010

• Can no longer opt in or out

• B2B for own consumption is retail supply and TOMS can apply

• Customer invoicing

Travel management companies (2)

• Being an agent

• Agency agreements (per ATOL?)

• Hotel billback (who is the supplier?)

• Other travel services (flights, car hire etc)

• Disclosure of margin/separate fees

• Commissions

Travel management companies (3)

•EU Place of supply – agents feesPre January 2010 Post January 2010French Hotel

Agent

UK Customer

No UK VAT on fees

French Hotel

Agent

Customer

UK VAT at 20%

Exhibitions post 1 January 2011

• Entry fees to view/admission• Is it ancillary to admission (cloakroom etc)?

• Fees to exhibit/participate• Is it access to/right over a dedicated area?• Is it advertising?

• Other services (organisation/management)

Events/conferences post 1 January 2011

• Admission fee to participate• Entry fee to competition/event

• Closed or open event

• More than just ticket entry

• Includes attraction tickets, museum & historical buildings

Events/conferences post 1 January 2011 (2)

• Organisation/management• London Olympics hospitality

• Someone else selling admission?

• Conferences and education

Events/conferences with travel?

• Application of TOMS• Place of supply pre 2011

• Place of supply post 2011

• In-house event and interaction with TOMS

• Invoicing for the event/conference services

Events/conferences with travel? (2)

• Travel Management Company• Agent v principal

• Customer invoicing

• Hotel billback etc

• HMRC position?

PCI compliant – are you?

• What = the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, or PCI SSC – often termed simply “the Council”

• Who = American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. have incorporated the PCI DSS as the technical requirements for their data security compliance programmes

• Why = as a protection of client data against fraudulent use from hacking

PCI compliant – are you? (2)

• How = as part of a commitment to data security, card companies require that all merchants and service providers and their covered parties: store cardmember information only to facilitate card transactions as described in their agreement with the card company

PCI compliant – are you? (3)

• Comply with the current Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and includes:

• Employees • Agents • Representatives • Subcontractors

PCI compliant – are you? (4)

• Processors • Service providers• Providers of point-of-sale equipment, systems or payment processing

solutions, as well as any other party to whom a merchant may provide access to cardmember information in accordance with its Card Acceptance Agreement.

5 top tips

• Consider the VAT liability of the supply, including overseas• Consider whether any VAT will be a cost to you and/or your customer• Does the status of the underlying supplier have an impact on the VAT

liability?• Can any VAT cost be managed/reduced through the contractual position

(agent v principal, VAT invoicing etc)?• Can any VAT cost be managed/reduced through reorganising the structure

of the supplies?

QUESTIONS

Damon Wright – Director of VAT Services Damon has 20 years’ experience in Indirect Tax and VAT. Firstly as an HMRC Senior VAT Inspector, then in practice. Since 1997, he has worked for a big four firm of accountants plus one of the largest on the next tier down. He has also spent some time working in industry for one of the largest UK consumer groups (Virgin). He has extensive direct experience of advising Aviation, Tour Operator and Travel Agent clients, especially over the last 11 years.

OFFICE TELEPHONE +44 (0)20 7429 4100

DIRECT LINE: +44 (0)20 7429 0532

MOBILE: +44 (0)7720 590782

EMAIL: Damon.Wright@mhllp.co.uk