The following Value Added Tax guidance note by Tolley provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:
This guidance note provides an overview of the VAT treatment of supplies made by taxi and private hire or mini cab businesses.
Zero-rating of domestic passenger transport does not apply if the vehicle is designed to carry less than 10 passengers. Therefore, the fares charged to passengers using a taxi or private hire vehicle are likely to be liable to VAT at the standard rate, including any additional charges levied for waiting times, baggage, etc if the business providing the service is registered for VAT
Firms may also receive additional income from the following sources (this list is not exhaustive):
If the customer voluntarily gives a gratuity to the driver, the amount is not regarded as consideration from a VAT perspective, therefore no VAT needs to be accounted for on these amounts.
The VAT due will be calculated on the taxable items by multiplying the fares, including extras, by the VAT fraction (currently 1/6 for items liable to VAT at 20%).
The issue of whether recharges of insurance costs to drivers leasing a vehicle from the firm were liable to VAT, as a single composite supply of services or exempt from VAT, was recently the subject of a tribunal case in Wheels Private Hire Ltd (WPH). In this case, WPH operated a taxi hire business and it also rented a number of vehicles to certain drivers who did not have their own vehicle together with the provision of a radio service. The drivers that rented a vehicle from the business had the option of purchasing insurance from WPL which protected them against any third party liability whilst
Access this article and thousands of others like it free for 7 days with a trial of TolleyGuidance.
Read full article
Already a subscriber? Login