This guidance note is intended to provide an overview of the VAT issues that affect businesses operating as public houses or pubs for short.
Types of public houses
Managed pubs
These are pubs that are typically owned by a brewery. An employee of the brewery, generally referred to as the manager, will be responsible for running the pub. The retail sales of beers, wines, spirits, etc will be supplied by the brewery and the brewery will be required to account for VAT due on these sales. The brewery may franchise the catering side of the operation to the manager and the supply of catering services will be treated as a supply by the manager and not the brewery. Therefore VAT will only become due on the supplies of catering if the manager is registered for VAT in their own right. The normal registration and liability rules will apply if the registration limits are exceeded. A pub does not have to be owned by a brewery to be a managed pub and the term applies equally to circumstances
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