Inverness Leisure Receives Positive Ruling from HM Revenue and Customs
Inverness Leisure has recently been informed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs that despite previous threats over the last 2 years they will not be called to pay what was potentially going to be a £250,000 charge on backdated VAT.
HM Revenue & Customs had applied a ruling which after a lengthy dispute has now agreed should not apply to charitable leisure sports trusts like Inverness Leisure who manage and operate the facilities at Bught Lane on behalf of the Council.
Speaking about the ruling, James Martin, General Manager at the facility said, “When HMRC applied the ruling we joined forces with the other 122 Leisure Trusts throughout the UK in order to work together to have the ruling overturned as we would not have been in the position to take the matter on as an individual trust.
"However on a local level we have worked extremely hard over the last couple of years to make representation to the highest levels. And I am very grateful to the various local Councillors, MP’s and MSP’s who took up our case and supported our cause.
“The motions laid down by Danny Alexander at Westminster and the one set at the Scottish Parliament by Dave Thompson certainly helped the national cause. As this was an issue that would affect every leisure trust in the country, their Parliamentary motions were signed by a number of MP’s and MSP’s who were looking to support the national impact but also the leisure trusts in their own back yards.
“The support offered by the Councillors and Officers in Highland Council was also very helpful. Their agreement as a body to write to the Prime Minister and Chancellor regarding the revenue’s application of the VAT ruling supported our partnership working and would most certainly have added some strength to the argument Inverness Leisure was putting forward on an individual basis.
He continued, “The outcome is obviously the one we had always hoped for and we are very happy for our customers that it now means we will not need to find what was going to be a considerable amount to pay the charges the VAT man was looking to recover.
“We made it very clear in our defence that if the decision had gone the other way for us that the overall financial impact on Inverness Leisure would almost certainly have had a substantial impact on the frontline services at our centre.
“We always believed that the position of HMRC was being wrongly applied to us. However over the last couple of years, we have continued to work with them in a positive way to bring about an outcome which is to the benefit of everyone who uses Inverness Leisure and other leisure trust facilities throughout Scotland and the UK.
“It has been a long haul for us, but we are obviously delighted that common sense has eventually prevailed, particularly in the current financial climate.
“I am just pleased that as a company we can now put this matter to bed once and for all and get on with concentrating on managing and operating our facilities at the Bught.”
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