Included for VAT recovery is the supply of leased accommodation for more than 21 years combined with a service listed
A B C D E F H I M N O P R S T W
A
- Accounting, invoicing and related services
- Administration of the following:
- Career Development loans
- Certificates of Experience
- Government support payments to the Railway Industry Pension Funds
- Grants and awards
- Services supplied under the Companies Acts and the Patent and Trademarks Acts
- Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme
- Vehicle Excise Duty refunds
- Winter fuel payments scheme
- Inherited State Earnings Related Pension Scheme
- Student Loan Scheme
- Fast Track Teaching Programme
- Administration and collection of toll charges
- Aerial photographic surveys and aerial surveillance
- Agricultural services of the kind normally carried out by the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency
- Alteration, repair and maintenance of road schemes, except (a) any works carried out pursuant to an agreement made under section 278 of the Highways Act 1980, or (b) works involving construction on land not already used for road schemes
B
- Broadcast monitoring services
C
- Careers guidance, mentoring and counselling to help people into work as part of the New Deal and ONE service
- Cartographic services
- Cash in transit services
- Catering
- Ceremonial services
- Childcare services
- Collection, delivery and distribution services
- Computer services supplied to the specification of the recipient, including the provision of a fully managed and serviced computer infrastructure
- Conference and exhibition services
D
- Debt collection
- Departmental staff records and payroll systems including administration and payment of pensions
E
- Employment advisory services as directed by the Race Relations Act 1976
- Engineering and related process services
- Environmental research and protection services of the kind normally carried out for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
- Estate management services
- Export intelligence services
F
- Filming, audio-visual and production services
H
- Health promotion activities
- Hire of reprographic equipment including repair and maintenance
- Hire of vehicles including repair and maintenance
I
- Insolvency services
- Inspection of woodland sites for approval of felling licence applications and of timber imports/imports using timber packing to prevent entry of foreign tree pests and diseases
- Interpretation and translation services
- Issue of documents to, and control of, bingo halls and off-course bookmakers
- Issue of documents under Wireless and Telegraphy Act
L
- Laboratory services
- Laundry services
- Library services
M
- Maintenance and care of livestock and fauna in connection with the Royal Parks
- Maintenance, non-structural repair and cleaning of buildings
- Maintenance and repair of civil engineering works
- Maintenance, repair and cleaning of equipment, plant, vehicles and vessels
- Maintenance and repair of statues, monuments and works of art
- Medical and social surveys
- Messenger, portering and reception services
N
- Nursing services
O
- Office removals
- Operation and maintenance of static test facilities, engineering and support services and test range industrial support and security/safety services including those acquired for the purposes of research and development
- Operation and maintenance of stores depots
- Operation of hospitals, health care establishments and health care facilities and the provision of any related services
- Operation of prisons, detention centres and remand centres, including medical services
- Original research undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding
P
- Passenger transport services
- Pest control services
- Photographic, reprographic, graphics and design services
- Preparation and despatch of forms
- Press cutting services
- Professional services, including those of any manager, adviser, expert, specialist or consultant
- Provision under a PFI agreement of accommodation for office or other governmental use, together with management or other services in connection with that accommodation
- Publicity services
- Purchasing and procurement services
R
- Radio services
- Recruitment and relocation of staff and other related services
- Research, testing, inspection, certification and approval work for the Health and Safety Executive
S
- Scientific research of the kind normally carried out for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Standards Agency>
- Security Services
- Services of printing, copying, reproducing or mailing any documents or publications, including typesetting services
- Services relating to Action Teams for Jobs and Employment Zones
- Share Registry Survey
- Storage, distribution and goods disposal services
- Surveying, certification and registration in connection with ships and relevant record-keeping and verification, issue of certification, cards, discharge books and campaign medals to seamen
T
- Training, tuition or education
- Transport research of the kind normally carried out for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
- Travel services, excluding hotel accommodation and fares
- Travel and transport surveys, including traffic census counts
- Typing, secretarial, telephonist and clerical services including agency Staff
W
- Waste disposal services
- Welfare services
The following published Treasury (Taxing) Direction confirms the list of activities that are to be treated as business activities (therefore either standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt depending upon the type of supply) when supplied by NHS bodies.
Please feel free to contact us if you wish to confirm the correct VAT liability of any business supplies you make or intend to make.
The relevant NHS bodies are:
- Health Authorities – including Primary Care Groups, Local Health Groups (Wales) and Community Health Councils
- Special Health Authorities
- Special Health Boards (Scotland)
- Area Health Boards (Scotland)
- National Health Service Trusts
- Primary Care Trusts
- The Common Services Agency (Scotland)
- Dental Practice Board
The list of activities are:
A B C D E F G H I M N O P R S T V W
A
- Accommodation, including property acquisition and disposal and any related services
- Administration services
- Admission to premises and to events, eg entertainments, air displays etc
- Advertising or publicity services
- Archives
- Attendance of staff at court or any similar place
B
- Bankruptcies and insolvency services
- Broadcasting services
C
- Catering, including supplies from vending machines
- Car leasing
- Computer services or goods
- Concessions for catering or other services
- Conferences, exhibitions and any related facilities or services
- Construction, alteration, demolition, repair or maintenance work, civil engineering work, any related services or goods
- Contract or procurement services
- Copying or supply of any reproductions or of any documents
- Copyright, patents or licences to manufacture
D
- Delivery or distribution services
- Drainage work
E
- Electronic transfer of data
- Export of goods and related services
F
- Filming, replay or recording services
- Financial and any related services
- Fishing licences or permits
- Fire service assistance
- Freight transport
- Fuel and power
G
- Government car service
- Grant, assignment or surrender of any interest in or right over land, or of any licence to do anything in relation to land
- Grant of a right to inspect records
- Goods, including goods manufactured within a Government department and sold to its staff and to other customers, stores surplus or other equipment
- Grave maintenance
- Grounds maintenance
H
- Hairdressing
- Heating
- Hire of vehicles, machinery or equipment, with or without operator or crew
- Hydrographic, cartographic and similar services
I
- Information or statistical services
- Inspection services
L
- Laboratory services including analysis and testing of any substance
- Laundry services
- Licensing, certification, authorisation or the granting of any rights other than rights over land
M
- Manufacturing, assembling and other services
- Medical services
- Membership subscriptions
- Meteorological and related services
- Mineral or prospecting rights
- Mortuary services
N
- Nursery and day-care facilities
O
- Occupational health services
P
- Passenger transport
- Payroll and pension administration services
- Pest or animal control
- Photocopying services
- Photographic services
- Port, airport or harbour services and related goods
- Postal, packing or distribution services
- Professional services, including those of any manager, adviser, expert, specialist or consultant
- Publications
R
- Radio or communication services
- Recruitment services
- Research, testing, experimentation, sampling or other related laboratory services
- Repair or maintenance of machinery, equipment or other goods
S
- Searches
- Secondment of staff where such services could also be obtained from the private sector
- Secretarial services
- Security services and related goods
- Shipping services
- Slaughter, rendering and disposal of animals
- Social services
- Statistical services, including the collection, preparation and processing of data
- Storage facilities and related services
T
- Telecommunications
- Training, tuition or education and any related services or goods
- Transfer of milk quota leases
- Translation services
- Tree planting and afforestation
V
- Vehicle conversions
- Vehicle servicing and maintenance
- Verification of particulars of births, marriages or deaths
W
- Waste disposal
- Water
- Weighbridge services
The supplies made by NHS-run canteens or catering outlets have generally always been treated as standard-rated (17.5%) for VAT purposes. This has included all food sold for consumption on the premises. Up until recently, `premises’ has meant the entire hospital site in which the catering outlet is located. This has now been clarified in Customs’ Public Notice 709/1, in which Customs state that `premises’ are confined to the outlet and associated seating area, and do not extend to include the whole site.
What this means to NHS bodies which run catering outlets is that cold take-away food and drink which is taken away for consumption off the premises (e.g. in an office or a ward) can be zero-rated.
Outlined below is a checklist of the common items that may be zero-rated if taken away cold from the canteen for consumption off the canteen premises. All other supplies, which are also summarised, must remain to be treated as standard-rated. We hope that you find this useful.
The lists serve as a basic guide to help Trusts determine the VAT liability of items sold in canteens. Applying these rules will obviously result in a mixture of zero-rated and standard-rated sales being made. If each sale can be recorded as it takes place, normal VAT accounting rules can be used. If each sale cannot be recorded as it takes place, a `VAT retail scheme’ appropriate for catering will need to be used. It may also be possible to agree a method retrospectively, in order to reclaim over- paid output tax for the last three years.
Zero-Rated
What items can be zero-rated when sold take-away?
The following list covers the basic range of items that are sold from canteens/catering outlets that can be zero-rated if taken away.
It is not a comprehensive list of all zero-rated grocery items typically sold in grocers or supermarkets, just the typical items sold from canteen.
- Cold sandwiches & rolls
- Fresh fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, etc.
- Cold salads
- Cakes (all cakes, e.g. chocolate. eclairs cream cakes, pastries, etc.)
- Gingerbread (this is standard-rated when coated in chocolate, however chocolate ‘eyes’ are acceptable)
- Flapjacks
- Marshmallow teacakes
Biscuits (including choc-chip, bourbon, jaffa-cakes and biscuits coated in non-chocolate coatings). (Specifically excluded from zero-rating are all wholly or partly chocolate coated biscuits – these must 1 standard-rated).
- Crunch-cakes (made from ‘cornflakes’ other cereal)
- Chocolate cup cakes
- Toffee apples Milk and flavoured milk drinks (including milk-shakes)
- Vegetable crisps other than potato crisps
- Tortilla chips, corn chips, bagel chips, cheese savouries and twiglets
- Prawn crackers made from tapioca Glucose or dextrose `sports’ tablets
Standard-Rated
The following items remain to be treated as standard-rated. As with the zero-rated list, this is not a comprehensive list of all standard-rated food, just the types of supplies typically made from a canteen.
- Catering – All food and drink sold for consumption in a hospital canteen (including outdoor seating areas) is a supply in the course of catering and is standard- rated.
- Hot take-away food and drink – All hot food and drink sold for consumption off the premises is always standard-rated. Hot take-away food also includes items which are sold cold for consumption elsewhere, but a microwave is made available for customers to heat the food, (e.g. sausage rolls, pasties, etc).
- Other items which are always standard- rated even if taken away- all crisps and savoury snacks other than those mentioned in the zero-rating list, salted and roasted nuts (peanuts, etc), sweets and other confectionery including chocolate biscuits, ice-creams and lollies, prepared drinks and beverages including fruit juices, carbonated and soft drinks, alcoholic drinks and bottled water.