Q:
My University runs a Leisure Centre that is not open to the general public. Instead it offers memberships to staff, students, selected businesses & local community groups. We believe that the staff & student memberships are exempt from VAT and the other customers are subject to output VAT at standard rate.
Does the legal requirement to display VAT-inclusive prices on retail sales literature apply here? That would require us to dual price everything instead of a caveat like “plus VAT as applicable”.
Many thanks for supplying this resource.
A:
Hi Geoffrey
Actually I don’t think that your query is a VAT query as such. I’ve had a look at the HMRC guidance and can’t find anything that says whether or not you are required to specifiy different prices of the same item that apply to different classes of retail customer.
I think that the issue is more to do with consumer legislation and that in the UK you are required to show the full selling price at the point of sale for the benefit of the customer. And you’re not alone in having a 2 price structure – if you go to McDonalds or other similar retail food outlets, you’ll see different prices for certain items according to whether you eat in or take them away. Some food outlets charge the same price regardless, but just calculate the VAT on the basis that a certain proportion of sales are standard rated.
Having said all of this, it’s possible that there is a special arrangement between HMRC and the university community relating to this issue. I’ve had a dig round the HMRC website to see if I can find any such information and I can’t find anything. But it is certainly worth finding out what other universities do in this situation.
Sorry I can’t be more help on this one, but I’ll let you know if I come across anything in the future.
Kind regards
Marie