Chipping Sodbury Golf Club, with the agreement of HMRC, has been selected as the lead case in the fight to address the current issues and to challenge the principles being used by HMRC.  Several hundred Clubs now have their ‘appeals’ stayed behind the Chipping Sodbury case, pending the outcome of this Tribunal action.

The action is complex and has been on-going since January 2008.  The legal action is progressing and each side has exchanged information with the other as to who will be appearing as witnesses and what information will be provided to the Court.  Together, with the Tribunal and HMRC, a timetable was established at a Directions Hearing held in October 2010.  All required documentation has been submitted and a Pre-Trial review was heard on the 10th January 2011.  The hearing has been listed for the first available date from the 1st September 2011.

Whilst the legal case has been pursued, we have also been talking to the European Commission and the Central Policy Section of HMRC together with the Treasury.  Some of the information being prepared for the court case, together with responses we have received recently from clubs regarding distortion of competition, has been made available to the Policy Section and the Treasury.

Our Senior Partner, Fred Cowgill (founder of the Institute of Indirect Taxation), Craig Wagstaff (FD of the English Golf Union) and Graham Watson MEP had a a meeting in Brussels with Stephen Bill, Head of Cabinet for the Commissioner for Taxation.  All three continue to be involved.  Political lobbying will help our cause, and it is possible that a Eurpean view will be involved at some stage in the future, so the ground work has been done.

It is possible that the legal action will go to the European Court and potentially to the new UK Supreme Court.  We will need to increase the legal representation we have and this is likely to be very costly.

We need Golf Clubs to support this action, both financially and morally.  We have collected incredibly good witness evidence on how VAT affects clubs and more than 15 people may be called at the hearing to give their experience of coping with VAT in their club. Between them, this Group represents all the different types of clubs and issues.

The aim is that the whole golf industry should benefit from a more sympathetic and sensible approach to the VAT treatment of the supplies they make.