“[Birmingham's] mission is to inspire young people to discover their potential so that they can live in all its fullness. To serve its mission's aims the association runs supported housing projects, affordable childcare, community and leisure facilities across the city of Birmingham.” (2) Black Country: “The YMCA's vision is of an inclusive Christian movement, transforming communities, so that all young people truly belong, contribute and thrive. We fulfil this vision through supported housing for homeless young people, family support & childcare services in areas of deprivation, physical activity and health living services which promote wellbeing, and community learning activities.” (3) Leicester: “[Leicester] is a diverse community organisation whose mission is to empower young people to achieve skills, independence, and fulfilment through access to supported accommodation, education, arts and sports. The Y’s vision is to support our communities to achieve their objectives, empowering people to make positive transitions from childhood to independent adulthood and enrich the lives of our communities through providing community based services that are open, accessible and affordable.” (4) Burton: “Our vision is that, one day, everyone in our area will have a place to call home and enough to live on; one day, family members will be able to talk to each other without hatred or intolerance, one day we will have learned how to enjoy each others' differences, and to truly help each other to grow and develop. One day we will share a great hope and expectation for the future. Until then, [Burton] will work with others to defeat homelessness and poverty, disadvantage and intolerance, and to promote faith and hope in enterprising ways.”
“Housing related support services make an immense and very cost-effective contribution to improving the quality of lives of vulnerable people, and to the development of community wellbeing ... The aim of [SPP] is to enable people to remain in a more independent living situation, avoiding institutional care such as hospitals or, at the extreme, prison or a life on the streets. Equally it aims to help people in such institutional care to move to a more independent and stable home in the community.”
“ Exemptions for certain activities in the public interest 1. Member States shall exempt the following transactions: … ( g ) the supply of services and of goods closely linked to welfare and social security work, including those supplied by old people's homes, by bodies governed by public law or by other bodies recognised by the Member State concerned as being devoted to social wellbeing; …”
“ Group 7 — Health and welfare Item No … 9 The supply by— ( a ) a charity, … of welfare services and of goods supplied in connection with those welfare services. … NOTES (6) In item 9 “welfare services” means services which are directly connected with— ( a ) the provision of care, treatment or instruction designed to promote the physical or mental welfare of elderly, sick, distressed or disabled persons, ( b ) the care or protection of children and young persons, or ( c ) the provision of spiritual welfare by a religious institution as part of a course of instruction or a retreat, not being a course or a retreat designed primarily to provide recreation or a holiday, and, in the case of services supplied by a state-regulated private welfare institution, includes only those services in respect of which the institution is so regulated.”
“ Group 9 Welfare Advice or Information Item No 1 Supplies of welfare advice or information by— ( a ) a charity, ... NOTES: Meaning of “welfare advice or information” 1 In this Group “welfare advice or information” means advice or information which directly relates to— ( a ) the physical or mental welfare of elderly, sick, distressed or disabled persons, or ( b ) the care or protection of children and young persons. … Supplies not included in item 1 3 Item 1 does not include— ( a ) supplies that would be exempt by virtue of Group 6 of Schedule 9 (education) if they were made by an eligible body within the meaning of that Group, ( b ) supplies of goods, unless the goods are supplied wholly or almost wholly for the purpose of conveying the advice or information, or ( c ) supplies of advice or information provided solely for the benefit of a particular individual or according to his personal circumstances.”
“5.18 Welfare Welfare services provided by charities, public bodies and state-regulated private welfare institutions or agencies are normally seen as business and are exempt from VAT, but see paragraph 5.18.2. You can find more information in Welfare services and goods (Notice 701/2). 5.18.1 Welfare services Welfare services are directly connected with: · the provision of care, treatment or instruction designed to promote physical or mental welfare of elderly, sick, distressed or disabled people, distressed people do not include the unemployed · care and protection of children or young people · the provision of spiritual welfare provided by a religious institution as part of a course of instruction or a retreat, it must not be designed primarily to provide recreation or a holiday 5.18.2 Welfare services that can be treated as non-business Charities that provide welfare services significantly below cost, to distressed persons for the relief of their distress, may treat these supplies as non-business and outside the scope of VAT. ‘Significantly below cost’ means subsidised by at least 15%, and the subsidy must be available to everyone. The charity must be providing the service to the distressed individual, and not a local authority. By ‘distressed’ we mean someone who is suffering severe mental or emotional pain, anguish or financial straits. It denotes severe, rather than mild emotional or physical discomfort. An example of a non-business welfare service would be a night shelter for the homeless where a nominal charge of£1 per bed per night is made by the charity. But the cost to the charity of providing the shelter might be£20 per bed per night.”
“2.1 Services that are directly connected with the provision of care, treatment or instruction 2.1.1 Care, treatment or instruction Care, treatment or instruction includes the protection, control or guidance of an individual when this is provided to meet their medical, physical, personal or domestic needs. Any instruction must relate to the care or treatment of the individual for example showing them how to dress or bath themselves. It does not include the supply of information in the form of advice or help to enable them make an informed decision. For a service to be exempt under this heading the following must be satisfied: · the recipient must be an elderly, sick, distressed or disabled person · the care, treatment or instruction must be part of a specific individual care plan and the service must relate to it · an assessment of the recipient’s health condition and medical needs has been carried out by an appropriately trained person Examples include: · personal or nursing care (including assistance with bathing, dressing, toileting and other personal hygiene) · general assistance and support with everyday tasks such as form filling, letter reading or writing, bill paying · certain routine domestic tasks see paragraph 2.1.2 · counselling · looking after or supervising vulnerable people · support or instruction designed to develop or sustain a person’s capacity to live independently in the community · protection, control, guidance or companionship that is required to meet an individual’s personal or domestic needs · residential care, including accommodation, board and other services provided to residents as part of a care package”
“42. As regards in particular the importance of contractual terms in categorising a transaction as a taxable transaction, it is necessary to bear in mind the case law of the court according to which consideration of economic and commercial realities is a fundamental criterion for the application of the common system of VAT (see, to that effect, Revenue and Customs Comrs v Loyalty Management UK Ltd, Baxi Group Ltd v Revenue and Customs Comrs (Joined cases C-53/09 and C-55/09 )[2010] STC 2651 ,[2010] ECR I-9187 , paras 39 and 40 and the case law cited). 43. Given that the contractual position normally reflects the economic and commercial reality of the transactions and in order to satisfy the requirements of legal certainty, the relevant contractual terms constitute a factor to be taken into consideration when the supplier and the recipient in a 'supply of services' transaction within the meaning of arts 2(1) and 6(1) of the Sixth Directive have to be identified. 44. It may, however, become apparent that, sometimes, certain contractual terms do not wholly reflect the economic and commercial reality of the transactions.”
“Housing-related support is defined as support services which are provided to any person for the purpose of developing that person's capacity to live independently in accommodation or sustaining his capacity to do so provided: that the service user · has specific and identifiable vulnerabilities that render them in need of support services, and that the support service is therefore allocated on the basis of a defined selection I admission criteria that the individual applicant is assessed against · is over the age of 16, except where the support is provided as part of a package for their parent(s) or carer(s) and the support provided to the under 16 year old(s) has a direct impact on the effectiveness of the support provided to the parent(s) or carer(s) and that the support service provided · is principally focused on enabling the service user to secure or maintain their accommodation · is the subject of a formal support plan/agreement · distinguishes clearly between short-term resettlement and ongoing support maintenance where the service is anticipated to be long-term · is not the responsibility of a statutory body to fund from other budgets than Supporting People Grant · is not designed to enforce an order of the court · is supplementary to any housing management service provided by the same Service Provider to the same service user · includes no element that would be defined as personal care · includes the provision of cleaning services where these are not a landlord responsibility, and where the provision is essential in order to ensure that the service user is able to retain their accommodation, and where this service was in receipt of legacy funding”
“the supply of certain services closely linked to sport or physical education by non-profit making organisations to persons taking part in sport or physical education .”
“Clearly the estate agents were supplying services to the prospective purchasers, as they were engaged in the marketing and sale of the existing homes which belonged to the prospective purchasers and not to Redrow. But Redrow was prepared to undertake to pay for these services in order to facilitate the sale of its homes to the prospective purchasers. The estate agents received their instructions from Redrow and, so long as the prospective purchasers completed with Redrow, it was Redrow who paid for the services which were supplied. I do not see how the transactions between Redrow and the estate agents can be described other than as the supply of services for a consideration to Redrow. The agents were doing what Redrow instructed them to do, for which they charged a fee which was paid by Redrow. … Questions such as who benefits from the service or who is the consumer of it are not helpful. The answers are likely to differ according to the interest which various people may have in the transaction. The matter has to be looked at from the standpoint of the person who is claiming the deduction by way of input tax. Was something being done for him for which, in the course or furtherance of a business carried on by him, he has had to pay a consideration which has attracted VAT? The fact that someone else, in this case, the prospective purchaser, also received a service as part of the same transaction does not deprive the person who instructed the service and who has had to pay for it of the benefit of the deduction. ”
“… the taxpayer [ie Redrow, the housebuilder] did not merely derive a benefit from the services which the agents supplied to the householders and for which it paid. It chose the agents and instructed them. In return for the payment of their fees it obtained a contractual right to have the householders' homes valued and marketed, to monitor the agents' performance and maintain pressure for a quick sale, and to override any alteration in the agents' instructions which the householders might be minded to give. Everything which the agents did was done at Redrow's request and in accordance with its instructions and, in the events which happened, at its expense. The doing of those acts constituted a supply of services to Redrow.”
“Mr. Puzey submitted that Item 9 and Note 6 imposed no requirement as to whom the supply had to be made to, merely that the services were “directly connected…”
“Hertfordshire Social Services lay down criteria for deciding whether people qualify for services arranged and funded by social services. The people whose services by the Appellant are funded by the Council are in bands 1 and 2. In band 1 there is current substantial risk to health/welfare of the person, or that they will harm themselves or others. These are persons unable to provide even basic self care who require supervision to prevent risk of harm. Their substantial and regular carer is unable to continue or alternative or additional provision is required. In band 2 there is imminent substantial risk to health/welfare of the person, or that they will harm themselves or others. They have major difficulty in safely carrying out some key daily living tasks. They are disorientated, anxious, unable to communicate or at some risk of harm. Their substantial and regular carer needs additional support to enable them to continue helping. It is only for persons in these two bands that the Council pays for domestic help. Persons in these two bands are clearly severely disabled and rely on social services, including the Appellant, to continue to life in their own homes.”
“Looked at on their own, the type of services provided by the Appellant do not at first sight appear to be directly connected with the provision of care. On this basis, they could easily be supplied to people who find it convenient to have some home help. However, contrary to the Commissioners' submission, we do not think that we should look at the services in isolation and ignore the type of person to whom they are supplied. “Welfare services” are defined to mean services which are directly connected with the provision of care designed to promote the physical or mental welfare of elderly persons. It is only by considering the type of recipient that one can determine what services qualify. The services are provided under contract with the Council to people in bands 1 and 2, which means that they are people for whom there is either current or imminent substantial risk to the health and welfare of the person, and who are unable to provide even basic self care or have major difficulty in safely carrying out some key daily living tasks. For such people the services provided by the Appellant are not an additional help but are either part of the necessary care which the people need in order to continue to live at home, or they are so directly connected with it that they fall within the terms of the statutory provision. Accordingly, in our view, the services which are supplied under contract with the Council to persons in bands 1 and 2 are exempt.”