Local VAT variations slammed at seminar

Members of the C&E VAT policy unit faced a grilling by members of the profession at the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians (FODO) seminar. Customs officer Paul Tuckett said C&E policy had been vindicated by a tribunal ruling earlier this month, and gave a summation of current Customs Directorate policy. Scrivens director Nicholas Georgevic welcomed Mr Tuckett's statement but said some local C&E officials 'brazenly ignored' Mr Tuckett's policy advice. Tony Hewitt, former FODO education and professional services chairman, agreed, and asked that instruction for guidance on VAT matters from C&E head office be in sufficiently precise form that it should not be subject to a variety of interpretations by different VAT officers. Shaun King, VAT adviser to FODO, sympathised with those practitioners who said local VAT officers applied a variety of rules, but said it was impossible to apply a VAT 'benchmark' to any industry as all firms were different. He believed the way the profession could resolve any VAT difficulties was to go to tribunal, where resolutions gave directions to both business and C&E. However, several members of the audience said this mechanism should only be used as a last resort.