Matt

I have 2 jobs. Job 1: I work part time as an employee within the UK, for a UK registered company. Job 2: I work part time as a director of my own company. The company is registered in the UK but I undertake work in another country and travel there from the UK once a month. Would I fall under paragraph 7.7 in this guidance? https://www.gov.uk/guidance/special-tax-rules-on-foreign-travel-490-chapter-7#para7-4 If so, do I understand correctly that I can claim tax relief on the travel to Canada? And could I also claim tax relief on expenses while in Canada (accommodation, subsistence)? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Dear Team, I am looking to set up an online business connecting life coaches and clients. The life coaches are self employed and my service would host a directory of coaches, provide a digital platform for the interaction between coaches and clients, and charge a fee to the clients for using this service. For example a client could choose their coach, pay for a video conferencing session with that coach on my platform, and from that charge, a proportion would be passed on to the coach (eg 75%) and a proportion would be kept by my business (eg 25%). My question relates to VAT that should be charged to the client if the coach is not VAT registered, but my business is. Would the payment to the coach be considered a disbursement and therefore VAT only applied to 25% of the fee kept by my business, or would VAT be payable on the total amount charged to the client? Alternatively, would this be considered a digital marketplace and subject to DST rather than VAT? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Hi and thanks for your reply. Sorry for not being clear in my message. In this case the supervising health professional is a psychologist, who is a registered professional as listed in paragraph 2.1, and is professionally qualified to perform and supervise the service. The person being supervised is a psychotherapist, who does require supervision for purposes of registration and insurance, but this is not a legal requirement. My question is whether psychotherapy services would be exempt in this case (Ie acting under appropriate supervision, and where supervision is required, but not legally required). Thanks in advance for your reply, Matt

Hi all, I'm wondering about VAT exemption for services that are directly supervised by a registered health professional. VAT Notice 701/57 paragraph 5.3 lays out the conditions for VAT exemption in this situation. Point two under this paragraph states the requirement that: "the service requires supervision by a registered health professional, and is provided predominantly to meet the medical needs of a client". I'm wondering what the word 'requires' means in this context. For example does it mean there is a legal requirements for supervision? I'm trying to think of healthcare examples in which this would apply. For example, a care assistant that helps a nurse with personal care - would their services be VAT exempt? Clearly the act of helping with personal care itself does not legally require a registered professional's supervision, but i would have thought this service would be VAT exempt? My particular interest is in psychotherapists, who are not included as medical professionals (as per paragraph 2.2), but do 'require' supervision. This is not a legal requirement but is a requirement to obtain insurance and maintain their professional registration. Oftentimes this supervision is performed by other psychotherapists and so the supervision does not necessarily need to be a registered health professional in some contexts. However, in the context of deputised work from say a clinical psychologist then this would require supervision from a registered professional. So it would seem the condition is somewhat context specific, and i would have thought in this situation their services would become VAT exempt? Is there any service provided by HMRC that can advise about this on a case-by-case basis to help with interpretation in the context of a specific situation? https://www.gov.uk/guidance/health-professionals-pharmaceutical-products-and-vat-notice-70157

Hi all, I have read differing things online. Can anyone confirm if medications dispensed on private prescriptions are VAT exempt, zero-rate or standard rate? To confirm, this is not the same as over the counter medications which I believe are standard rate VAT. Thanks in advance for any replies. 

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