Speaking at a meeting organized by the thinktank Politeia in central London on the 19th Jan 2012, David Willets the universities and science minister was reported as announcing the instant end to VAT on HE/FE shared services. The TES and others wrote that he told the meeting that the new rules would start immediately and that a new finance law was not needed.
However, HMRC are saying that his words have been
misinterpreted and the FE/HE sector will need to wait until the 2012 Finance
Bill provides the consent. The detail of how the exemption will work in the UK
will be in HMRC guidance notes, the legislation will only deal with the basic
rules of the exemption not how they will apply. We are left wondering how much
“devil” will be in the detail.
If you want to know more about the background to the VAT
exemption on shared services for HE/FE and other bodies then here is the story,
part of which we teach on the Highway Code of Shared Services.
Let’s
start at the beginning
When
Chancellor George Osborne raised the VAT level to 20% in Jan 2011, there was an
audible groan from across shared service practitioners working with VAT exempt
partnerships in colleges and universities.
Suddenly
the public sector shared service efficiency
threshold moved - for FE colleges, universities,
housing associations, the charitable sector
and other organisations - from needing a 17.5%
gain to a 20% gain, before any savings are made.
The
problem for these organisations is that in a shared
service partnership they may have to pay VAT
on services they gain from the partnership,
but unlike local authorities, their tax
structure does not allow them to claim the VAT
back.
Following
an HMRC consultation on the subject in
June 2011, the Chancellor announced in his November 2011 Autumn Statement, that, “Following consultation
after Budget 2011, the Government will
introduce a VAT exemption for services
shared between VAT exempt bodies, including
charities and universities”.
Whilst
this is good news for shared service activities,
it will potentially make outsourcing to the
private sector more expensive - as VAT may
still be payable on private sector related services.
More on that later.
But is it
the Chancellor, or the EU, who helped
make the change?
The
original June 2011 consultation document stated that,
“The VAT Cost Sharing Exemption is a
provision in European law that allows businesses and organisations making VAT exempt, and/or non-business
supplies, to form groups to achieve cost
savings and economies of scale. Once formed the
groups are relieved of a VAT charge on their
supplies if all the conditions of the exemption
are met.”.
However,
although the exemption is
mandatory, and is being used to reclaim VAT on shared services in other EU countries, HMRC reveals that, “There is currently no domestic legislation that allows exemption to be
used by the UK taxpayers.”. So, HMRC issued the consultation document. But, they had not been idle prior to that.
- June 2010: It was announced that existing discussions with ‘relevant sectors’ would continue and a promise of a consultation was given
- Jan-Feb 2011: There were meetings with potential beneficiaries of the exemption
- March 2011: There was an announcement in the budget that the process consultation would continue
The
release of the consultation document offered the
opportunity for groups to have their say and
many did.
What is
likely to happen?
HMRC have
the ambition to implement the exemption so that it:
- Will be used by a wide range of sectors
- Reduces a VAT barrier to businesses collaborating with each other
- Is straightforward to operate
- Does not create opportunities for abuse or avoidance
- To help you understand the implications of the impact on shared services they provide worked through examples in Annexe D: Diagrams illustrating the cost sharing group structure.
PRACTITIONER
UPDATE
What are
the conditions that need to be met to qualify for exemption?
Based on
the European legislation HMRC considers that there are five
basic conditions that have to be met before
the exemption can apply. These are:
- There has to be a “cost sharing group (CSG)” supplying services to persons who are members of it
- The members have to make exempt and/or non-business supplies
- The services supplied by the CSG must be ‘directly necessary’ for the exercise of the members’ exempt or non-business activities
- The services must be supplied at cost (‘exact reimbursement’)
- Use of the exemption must not cause or be likely to cause distortion of competition
- The members of a shared service must carry on an “activity which is exempt from VAT or in relation to which they are not a taxable person”.
Under
current legislation these are:
- Certain land supplies
- Insurance
- Postal services
- Betting and gaming
- Finance
- Education
- Health and welfare
- Burial and cremation
- Trades unions, professional and public interest bodies
- Sport
- Charity fund raising
- Cultural services
Plus it
can apply to a “charity or similar body carrying
out non-business activities to meet its objectives”.
What does
it all mean?
Firstly, there
may well be many FE colleges and universities dusting down
plans that were shelved because the VAT issue
was the only barrier to moving forward in
partnership.
There may
be others who now have a bit of a problem
because they were using the VAT issue to cover
up the fact that, although engaged in talks,
they really do not want to partner with
others.
Secondly, there
is probably a puzzled look on many private sector outsource
companies as, unless it changes in 2012, the
proposals do not address the VAT payable on
outsourcing of services to private sector
providers.
So this
could potentially limit the use of outsourcing
models to achieve cost efficiencies.
But,
watch this space carefully as it may be addressed
when the changes are made in 2012.
Finally,
reducing the need to exceed the 20% VAT
threshold before shared service savings kick
in will be advantageous to colleges, universities
and other sectors at a time of reduction in
the central government budgets they receive.
And therein lies the elephant in the room.
Estimates
from HMRC are that this will cost the treasury
up to £200m in lost income by the fifth year
after implementation.
So maybe
this is just a subtle way for the Chancellor
to sow the seeds of an even more substantial
cut in the budgets of the FE colleges and
Universities in the 2012 budget.
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Manny
Gatt is Managing Director of Shared Service Architecture Ltd
and lectures in Shared Services on the national Postgraduate Certificate in
Shared Services at Canterbury Christ Church University. Click here for more
details.