City College of Higher Education Ltd
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 11 September 1987 |
| Date | 11 September 1987 |
| Court | Value Added Tax Tribunal |
VAT Tribunal
Rowe & Maw v. C. & E. Commrs. VAT(1975) 1 BVC 51 applied
Supplies of services - Examination fees - Whether entry to examinations set by exempt bodies supplied by college to students as principal or agent.
The issue was whether certain examination fees of exempt bodies were paid by a college as agent, and thus were partly exempt, or as principal, when the fees would be wholly taxable.
The appellant was a tutorial college, providing education and operating for profit. The supplies which it so made to its students were chargeable to tax at the standard rate as they fell outside the Value Added Tax Act 1983, Value Added Tax Act 1983 schedule 6 group 6Sch. 6, Grp. 6, and the appellant was registered as a taxable person. The appellant collected and paid over fees payable by students to various public examination boards, which were all, save one, Pitmans, exempt from VAT. To these examination fees the appellant added a fee of its own for providing the facilities and invigilators for the public examinations set by the Boards, and accounted for VAT on that fee. The Commissioners assessed the appellants to VAT on the whole of the examination fees.
The appellant contended that it acted as the students' agent in paying that part of the examination fees relating to the Boards' services, and as principal in receiving its own share of the fees.
For the Commissioners it was contended that:
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1. The appellant was supplying services (i.e. education) for profit.
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2. As a result all supplies made by it for a consideration in the course or futherance of that activity were chargeable to tax at the standard rate.
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3. This included the holding and conducting of examinations.
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4. The appellant acted as a principal, not as an agent.
Held, allowing the taxpayer's appeal:
There were two supplies by different suppliers to the same recipients. The examination services were supplied by the Boards and Pitmans to the candidates, as it was the candidates alone who had the benefit of the rights in relation to the examining Board. Accordingly, the appellant acted as an agent in collecting the fees and forwarding such moneys to the Boards and Pitmans, and as principal in supplying the facilities to take the examinations, and the fees charged by the Boards were therefore exempt from tax.
[The Tribunal set out the facts summarised above and continued as follows.]
… In my opinion, the primary question...
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