The VAT and Property Guide 3rd ed

A brand new edition of this established title, completely rewritten to reflect changes to the VAT and property rules including the anticipated new Schedule 10 to the VAT Act and recent case law. More fundamentally, there will be new material on every aspect of the option. In particular, there will be new rules on the duration of the option to tax, when it can be revoked, and what it affects.

There will be a new Schedule 10 to the VAT Act 1994 and certain consequential changes will be made to other VAT legislation, including new appeal rights, accompanied by a public notice having the force of law. The new measures will enable taxpayers to revoke an option to tax after 20 years.

The rewritten legislation will have effect on and after 1 June 2008. The earliest date an option to tax will be revocable will be 1 August 2009.

A number of associated changes will also improve practical administration of the option to tax and its revocation will be included in the legislation. These deal with:

• opted properties held in a VAT group;
• opted buildings acquired for use as dwellings or relevant residential purpose and bare land acquired for construction of building for such purposes;
• the introduction of a new option to simplify the option to tax process for taxpayers with a number of properties;
• early revocation of an option to tax within a "cooling-off" period;
• the automatic lapse of an option to tax six years after the taxpayer ceased to have any interest in a property that they had previously opted to tax;
• the ability, in certain circumstances, to exclude a new building from a previous option to tax;
• late applications for permission to opt to tax

A succint guide to the new, complex VAT and property rules, referenced to relevant source materials