PLACE OF ESTABLISHMENT FOR BUILDING SERVICES

摘要

The decision in Muster Inns Ltd (TC03689) is helpful in answering the question as to whether a business based abroad creates an establishment for VAT purposes in the UK simply by carrying out a long-term contract in the UK which requires 'human and technical resources' to be present on site. These were services relating to land, and therefore the place of supply was fundamentally in the UK. The question was whether the supplier had to register for and charge VAT, or whether it was levied under the reverse charge by the importer of the services. The job of refurbishing the property appears to have lasted roughly six months, and may have been extended, but that was uncertain. At the time the contract was being carried out, accommodation was provided by the customer for the workmen of a Guernsey company. Although there appears to have been some suggestion that the Guernsey company directors were seeking other UK work to do after having completed this particular contract, nothing came of this. Once the contract was complete, the company no longer maintained human and technical resources at the customer's site.