Tag Archives: voucher

VAT: Treatment of vouchers, gifts and discounts – How business promotions work

By   24 May 2019
Business promotions are an area of VAT which continues to prove complex.  This is further exacerbated by changes to the legislation at EU and domestic level and ongoing case law. The main points are; whether there is a supply, and, if so, what is the value of that supply?

I hope that the VAT position is helpfully summarised here. I thought it may be useful if the VAT treatment of various business promotion schemes is summarised in one place.

…I recall a statement from an old mentor of mine; “if you have a marketing department you have a VAT issue!”

Summary

Offer How to charge VAT
Discounts Charged on the discounted price (not the full price)
Gifts Charged on the gift’s full value – there are some exceptions listed below
Multi-buys Charged on the combined price if all the items have the same VAT rate. If not, VAT is ‘apportioned’ as mixed-rate goods
Money-off coupons, vouchers etc No VAT due if given away free at time of a purchase. If not, VAT due on the price charged
Face value vouchers that can be used for more than one type of good or service (multi-purpose) No VAT due, if sold at or below their monetary value
Face value vouchers that can only be used for one type of good or service (single-purpose) VAT due on the value of the voucher when issued
Redeemed face value vouchers Charged on the full value of the transaction at the appropriate rate of the goods provided in return for the voucher

 Exceptions for gifts

There’s no VAT due on gifts given to the same person if their total value in a 12 month period is less than £50.

Free goods and services

A business is not required to account for VAT on things like free samples if they meet certain conditions.

Supplies Condition to meet so no VAT due
Free samples Used for marketing purposes and provided in a quantity that lets potential customers test the product
Free loans of business assets The cost of hiring the asset is included in something else you sell to the customer
Free gifts The total cost of all gifts to the same person is less than £50 in a 12 month period
Free services You don’t get any payment or goods or services in return

Background

Face value vouchers

Recent changes, radically alter the UK rules for face value vouchers (FVV). FVVs are; vouchers, tokens, stamps (physical or electronic) which entitle the holder to certain goods or services up to the value on the face of the vouchers from the supplier of those goods or services.

Examples of FVVs would include vouchers sold by popular group discount websites, vouchers sold by high street retailers, book tokens, stamps and various high street vouchers.

Single or multi-purpose

The most important distinction for FFVs is whether a voucher is a single purpose voucher or multi-purpose voucher. If it is a multi-purpose voucher then little has changed. If it is a single purpose voucher, however, HMRC will now required output tax to be accounted for at the date it is issued.

Single purpose vouchers are vouchers which carry the right to receive only one type of goods or services which are all subject to a single rate of VAT. Multi-purpose vouchers are anything else. The differences can be quite subtle.

For example:

  • a voucher which entitles you to download an e-book from one seller will be a single purpose voucher. A voucher which entitles you to either books (zero rated) or an e-book download (standard rated) from the same seller will be multi-purpose
  • a voucher which entitles you to £10 of food at a restaurant which does not sell takeaways is probably single purpose, whereas if the restaurant has a cold salad bar and you can buy a take away with the voucher (or hot food) then it would be multi-purpose. 

The above means that for single purpose vouchers VAT is due whether the voucher is actually redeemed or not; which seems an unfair result. There is no way to reduce output tax previously accounted for if the voucher is not used.

Please contact us if you, or your clients use this type of business promotion. of course, get it wrong, and there is likely to be a financial penalty!

VAT Latest from the courts; vouchers (again)

By   13 February 2017

The Court of Appeal (CA) case: Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) considered the VAT treatment of free vouchers.

Business promotions are an area of VAT which continues to prove complex.  This is further exacerbated by changes to the legislation at EC and domestic level and ongoing case law.   A background to the issue of vouchers here 

And a background to the hearing of this particular case at the Upper Tribunal here

Background

The appeal concerned the VAT consequences (in respect of both input and output tax) of promotional schemes carried out by ANL in order to boost the circulation of the newspapers: Daily Mail and the Mail On Sunday.  ANL gave away Marks & Spencer vouchers to people who bought these newspapers for a minimum of three months. The questions where whether attributable (to the provision of the vouchers) input tax was recoverable, and, was there a deemed supply such that output tax was due on the vouchers.  One scheme was managed for ANL by The Hut.com Limited. The Hut received a fee for its services which was subject to VAT and which ANL sought to deduct as input tax. The Hut also purchased the retailer vouchers in batches (usually at a discount) and invoiced them to ANL at cost and also subject to VAT.  In another scheme, ANL purchased vouchers directly from Marks & Spencer.

Decision

HMRC sought to rely on  paragraph 14 of VAT Information Sheet 12/2003, viz: “Where face value vouchers are purchased by businesses for the purpose of giving them away for no consideration (e.g. to employees as ‘perks’ or under a promotion scheme) the VAT incurred is claimable as input tax subject to the normal rules. Output tax is due under the Value Added Tax (Supply of Services) Order 1993. Therefore all vouchers given away for no consideration will be liable to output tax to the extent of the input tax claimed”.

However, the CA agreed with the decisions made at the Upper Tribunal.  Although the vouchers were given away (no consideration) input tax was recoverable because there was an overarching business purpose for the expenditure (increasing sales).  Additionally, it was decided that the provision of the vouchers was not caught by the deemed supply rules so there was no output tax due when the vouchers were given away to readers. ANL also sought to reclaim input tax on vouchers purchased directly from Marks & Spencer – usually at a discount from their face value, but at a price which purported to include VAT. The CA also agreed with the UT on this point; that no VAT was charged on these retailer vouchers, and consequently, there was no input tax to recover.

Commentary

An interesting case, and one that will reward with a reading in full.  It does seem that HMRC’s views on vouchers need revising in light of this decision.  As always, if your business, or your clients’ businesses, are involved with vouchers in any way it is important to ensure that the VAT treatment is correct.  This is especially relevant in light of; previous case law, recent changes to the rules applicable to the treatment of vouchers (as set out in the link above) as well as this specific case.

Please contact us should you wish to discuss this matter.