Vat on rent for a building with educational use

cerruti

Hi there we are in private education renting a building in the city centre which is deemed suitable for educational use. We pay vat on our rent but as we are vat exempt we cannot claim it back
However it has come to our attention that a similar private education institution who is on the same street and who share the same landlord are not paying vat on their rent. How we know this is that we enquired about renting some extra space and the estate agent told us.
We are very confused and nobody seems to be able to answer this question for us. Can somebody please shed some light on this subject? We would be most grateful.

Legend100

cerruti wrote: »

Hi there we are in private education renting a building in the city centre which is deemed suitable for educational use. We pay vat on our rent but as we are vat exempt we cannot claim it back
However it has come to our attention that a similar private education institution who is on the same street and who share the same landlord are not paying vat on their rent. How we know this is that we enquired about renting some extra space and the estate agent told us.
We are very confused and nobody seems to be able to answer this question for us. Can somebody please shed some light on this subject? We would be most grateful.

sorry to be a bit negative cerruti but this is a prime example of something that goes way beyond the scope of boards, you need professional advice

property threads here are a no no and I would go even further and say VAT on property is an absolute banned topic (it is highly specialised and a very complex area)

Bold Abdu

I'd suggest just asking your landlord why he charges vat. He'll probably have been advised on the matter by his own accountant.

You can then relay what he said to your own accountant and see what he thinks.

As Legend100 it's a complex issue and hard to give specific advice.

al22

May be you need to get a VAT exemption certificate from the Tax Office
as some companies do? Then give an exempton cert number to your landlord and he will note it on his invoices and do not charge VAT.

My suggestion only. Check with the Tax Office please.

Alan Shore

al22 wrote: »

May be you need to get a VAT exemption certificate from the Tax Office
as some companies do? Then give an exempton cert number to your landlord and he will note it on his invoices and do not charge VAT.

I think it's a shame that advice can't be provided.

Al22, I'm not sure if you provide tax advice to clients, I hope not because you are so far off the mark here. Educational providers are exempt from VAT which means that the service is exempt and they can't register for VAT to recover the VAT on inputs.

I presume that the VAT exemption certificate you are referring to is under S 56 VATA 2010 which is available to companies with 75% of turnover leaving the country.

al22

Alan Shore wrote: »

I think it's a shame that advice can't be provided.

Al22, I'm not sure if you provide tax advice to clients, I hope not because you are so far off the mark here. Educational providers are exempt from VAT which means that the service is exempt and they can't register for VAT to recover the VAT on inputs.

I presume that the VAT exemption certificate you are referring to is under S 56 VATA 2010 which is available to companies with 75% of turnover leaving the country.

Apology then for wrong suggestion. Thanks.

Legend100

Alan Shore wrote: »

I think it's a shame that advice can't be provided.

Al22, I'm not sure if you provide tax advice to clients, I hope not because you are so far off the mark here. Educational providers are exempt from VAT which means that the service is exempt and they can't register for VAT to recover the VAT on inputs.

I presume that the VAT exemption certificate you are referring to is under S 56 VATA 2010 which is available to companies with 75% of turnover leaving the country.

I think Alan this is a classic example of why advice can't be provided (Al22's response I mean). Far too open for possible mistakes

Even though the reason why VAT is being charged on the rents may be determinable by advisers like us on here - the liability for getting it wrong is too great when property is in question so I would agree with the mods decision to ban such threads

Alan Shore

@Legend100, I 100% understand why it can't be given but I do wonder why when there are people around who actually know the answer, randomers come along with suggestions, I'm not having a go at @Al22 I'm sure they had the best of intentions but do randomers give their views in the car maintenance section or plumbing.

In this case for example it is a fact that VAT is charged on rent in some cases, it is a fact that VAT is not charged on rent in other cases.

Mr. Incognito

Property thread.

Seek Professional Advice.

Read the charter.

The rule for Property Bans is a simple one- Wrong advice can costs Thousands of Euro in Interest and Penalties and can result in people logging onto Boards, taking it as gospel and then using it as a basis to try and ground a claim. A claim that would not succeed but I have better things to do with my time to field disgruntled lawsuits.

As always, if anyone wishes to give specific advice I will be glad to relax this rule once they provide me with a copy of their professional indemnity insurance and making it clear that they are giving professional advice in their own name.

If you wish to do this please pm me.

Thread closed.