HMRC Notice 701/19 has been updated to cover payments under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

What is the scheme?

This scheme provides a price reduction to help protect all non-domestic customers in Great Britain from excessively high bills.

All non-domestic customers in Great Britain are eligible for this scheme. This includes businesses, voluntary, and public sector organisations (such as charities, schools, and hospitals).

The scheme administrator will compensate suppliers for the reduced prices that they are charging non-domestic customers and there is no need to take action or apply to the scheme as the price reduction will be applied to bills automatically.

The scheme applies to energy usage from 1 October 2022 up to and including 31 March 2023 with savings first seen in October bills.

VAT Treatment

Payments made to suppliers under the scheme are grant payments and outside the scope of VAT. VAT is only due on the amount suppliers actually charge their customers for energy supplied.

Any VAT incurred by suppliers in relation to the operation of the scheme relates to the taxable supply of energy and is therefore recoverable, subject to normal rules.

If changes are made to the scheme in the future, VAT liability may change.