“Secrets Money” [value of voucher in words] Secrets money may be used by the customer for the payment of drinks, food, service charge, entrance fees or tip the staff and dancers. Any change given will be in Secrets money. Further Secrets money may be obtained by credit/debit card or other currency by asking the manager or waiting staff. Terms and Conditions apply.”
“Secrets Money Terms and Conditions 1. Secrets Money:- a) Can be obtained via your credit/debit card or other currency. b) Can be used for the payment of drinks, food, service charge, entrance fees and tipping staff and dancers. Any change will be given in Secrets Money. c) Is only valid in the Secrets venue it was obtained. d) Will be subject to a commission of 20% (Twenty percent) which will be added to the face value of the Secrets Money. e) Once obtained is non-refundable. 2. If the Secrets Money is to be used on a day other than the day of issue, the Secrets Money must be validated before use. The validation process (for security purposes) is as follows:- a) You must present the Secrets Money for validation to the Manager on arrival at the SECRETS venue from which it was obtained. b) SECRETS will then check that the Secrets Money has not been used before. Checking process may take up to 7 days. c) You may be required to show proof of acquisition of the Secrets Money, including the credit/debit card and the receipt originally used to acquire the Secrets Money.”
“Without prejudice to other Community provisions, Member states shall exempt the following under conditions which they shall lay down for the purpose of ensuring the correct straightforward application of the exemptions and of preventing any possible evasion, avoidance and abuse: . . . (d) the following transactions: . . . 2. the negotiation of or any dealings in credit guarantees or any other security for money and the management of credit guarantees by the person who is granting the credit; . . .”
“The issue, transfer or receipt of, or any dealing with, money, any security for money or any notes or order for the payment of money.”
“… a document under seal or under hand at a consideration containing a covenant, promise or undertaking to pay a sum of money.”
“The service supplied by Provident in the second transaction can, I think, fairly be described as a supply consisting of the receipt or dealing with a ‘security for money’. The word ‘security’ when used without qualification or in a context that demands a narrow or specific construction, has a wide meaning. The voucher, when presented by the customer to the participating retailer, evidences Provident’s obligation to meet the price for the goods purchased by the customer to the extent of the face value of the Voucher(s). As such it is a security within the wide meaning of that word. Moreover Provident’s service has similar features to the services supplied by credit card companies and credit cards are referred to in Note (4) to Group 5.”
“This Group includes any supply by a person carrying on a credit card, charge card or similar payment card operation made in connection with that operation to a person who accepts the card used in the operation when presented to him in payment for goods and services.”
“… to alleviate the difficulties connected with determining the tax base and the amount of VAT deductible and to avoid an increase in the cost of consumer credit.”
“… the phrase ‘any security for money’ in item 1, the word ‘security’ is itself there undefined but would appear to be used in the ordinary sense, that is to say some instrument whereby the indebtedness of the borrower to the lender is by some means ‘secured’.”
“11. By its first question, the national court asks essentially whether restaurant transactions constitute supplies of goods within the meaning of Article 5 of the Sixth Directive, which, under Article 8(1)(b), are deemed to be carried out at the place where the goods are when the supply takes place, or whether they are supplies of services within the meaning of Article 6(1), which, under Article 9(1) of the directive, are deemed to be carried out at the place where the supplier has established his business. 12. In order to determine whether such transactions constitute supplies of goods or supplies of services, regard must be had to all the circumstances in which the transaction in question takes place in order to identify its characteristic features. 13. The supply of prepared food and drink for immediate consumption is the outcome of a series of services ranging from the cooking of the food to its physical service in a recipient, whilst at the same time an infrastructure is placed at the customer’s disposal, including a dining room with appurtenances (cloak rooms, etc), furniture and crockery. People, whose occupation consists in carrying out restaurant transactions, will have to perform such tasks as laying the table, advising the customer and explaining the food and drink on the menu to him, serving at table and clearing the table after the food has been eaten. 14. Consequently, restaurant transactions are characterised by a cluster of features and acts, of which the provision of food is only one component and in which services largely predominate. They must therefore be regarded as supplies of services within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the Sixth Directive. The situation is different, however, where the transaction relates to ‘take-away’ food and is not coupled with services designed to enhance consumption on the spot in an appropriate setting.”
“In my judgment, the over-arching single supply is not to be treated as a supply of a licence to occupy land. The description which reflects economic and social reality is a supply of massage parlour services, one element of which is the provision of the room … This is a case where the tax treatment of the supply is self-evident once it is established that the other services elements [including laundry facilities, credit-card services and advertising] are not ancillary to the provision of the licence.”