Issue 12: VAT on Legal Fees
It is
quite common for a business to pay the expenses incurred by a third party.
Imagine
you are moving into your business premises and as part of the negotiation for
the lease you agree to pay the landlord’s legal expenses. Now you are thinking “that’s
a small price to pay for such a fabulous building plus I can recover the VAT”.
WRONG!
Remember,
one of the basic VAT rule is who is the
legal services being supplied to? In this instance it’s the landlord, so
you my friend cannot recover the VAT even though you are the one that paid it. Don’t
cry because I bear glad tidings.
Assuming
that the landlord is VAT registered and the rent they are charging you is standard
rated, this is how you get out of that trap:
Get the
solicitor to send you the bill with just the net amount and ask them to send a
VAT only invoice to the landlord. Simples.
What
that does is you only pay the net legal fees and the landlord recovers the VAT.
Just always be aware of any transactions that involve three parties.
I am
Marlon “Mr. VAT” Appleton
If you agree to pay the legal fees for the landlord, then you have a chain supply of services, because the agreement between you and the landlord is also a taxable supply of services. I assume that the legal fees are related to the lease agreement, and if we also assume that the landlord has full VAT liability, then why shouldn't you then be able to recover the VAT?
ReplyDelete/BP
Hi Bjorn, many thanks for your comment. I must however stress that it is not as simple as you stated. First we have to determine whether the landlord has an option to tax on the building. If not then the rental supply is exempt.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your second point, the recoverability of input VAT , in UK VAT law, is based on the principle of who the service is being supplied to. In this case the legal services are provided to the landlord and not the tenant. Remember, the determining factor is not who paid the VAT. So based on my example above only the landlord can recover the VAT on the legal fees subject to certain conditions.