VAT—transfers of a going concern involving land and buildings

Produced in partnership with Martin Scammell

Practice notes

VAT—transfers of a going concern involving land and buildings

Produced in partnership with Martin Scammell

Practice notes

FORTHCOMING CHANGE relating to VAT registration and deregistration thresholds: With effect from 1 April 2024, the VAT registration and deregistration thresholds will increase to £90,000 and £88,000 respectively.

This Practice Note is about the issues that arise on a transfer of a going concern involving land and buildings.

A transfer of a going concern (TOGC) has two distinct meanings for VAT purposes:

•
an ordinary meaning, referring simply to the disposal of an ongoing business—this is relevant, in particular, to the VAT registration position of the buyer, and
•
a transfer that is treated as a non-supply for VAT purposes, so that in particular no VAT is due on it

Both are often referred to as a TOGC, but for the remainder of this Practice Note this term is reserved for the second of these meanings, to refer to a non-supply.

There are three main ways in which property might be the subject of, or included in, a TOGC:

•
a transfer of a non-property business where property is simply among

Martin Scammell

Martin Scammell is an independent VAT consultant, specialising in property and construction matters, who works with tax departments in major corporates and universities, and with a number of law and accountancy firms. He is the author of the leading reference work on VAT and property.

Martin started out in VAT Policy in Customs & Excise, was a Partner at Ernst & Young, where he headed up the VAT real estate group, and then became head of indirect tax at Eversheds.

He has been involved in the development of VAT legislation and policy over many years, and regularly serves on working parties established by HMRC. He was a member of the Office of Tax Simplification’s consultative committee for their review of VAT in 2017, and in 2018-19 of HMRC’s external stakeholder group considering the proposed reverse charge for building work. Martin currently works with HMRC as technical secretary to the British Property Federation’s VAT Committee, as an adviser to the British Universities’ Finance Directors’ Group and as a member of HMRC’s Joint VAT Consultative Committee and VAT Land and Property Liaison Group. He is a member of the Chartered Institution of Taxation’s indirect taxes and property taxes committees.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Activity definition

What does Activity mean?

1 The rate at which radioactive material disintegrates or decays per unit time. The units can be measured as either a Curie (Ci) or a Becquerel (Bq). 2 An activity involving radioactive material that requires a licence.

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