After much deliberation and delay, the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty appears to be back on track and could enter into force this month. Ireland, the only country to hold a referendum on the Treaty, ratified it on 2 October 2009, with Poland following closely behind by signing on 10 October 2009.

Continue reading “Lisbon Treaty: update”

Since 2007, Defra, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Welsh Assembly Government have been reviewing the waste exemptions from environmental permitting, a system that has been in place and largely unchanged for 15 years. In broad terms, certain waste activities, such as burning waste as fuel or spreading sludge on agricultural land, were exempt from the need to obtain a waste management licence or, since 2007, an environmental permit. These exempt activities still needed to be registered with the EA, but were intended to reduce the burden on businesses carrying out low-risk waste activities while still affording the regulators the ability to retain a sufficient degree of control.

Continue reading “Tidying up: revisions to waste permitting exemptions”

In Airtours Holiday Transport Ltd v HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) [2009], the tax chamber of the first-tier tribunal decided that Airtours Holiday Transport Ltd (Airtours) was entitled to a credit for input VAT on fees that it had paid to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). HMRC argued that Airtours was merely a third-party payer and that PwC’s services had been provided to financial institutions, not to Airtours. The tribunal applied the ratio of the decision of the House of Lords in Commissioners of Customs & Excise v Redrow Group Plc [1999] and determined on the facts that the supply of accountancy services was made both to Airtours and the banks. Accordingly, Airtours was entitled to an input tax credit as it had been a recipient of a supply of services.

Continue reading “First-tier tribunal applies Redrow to accountancy services”