Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

VAT definition

What does VAT mean? VAT is a consumption tax on most supplies of goods and services made by taxable businesses to businesses or consumers. In practice, it underpins pricing (plus VAT), invoicing, cross‑border trade and many property transactions. The charge and key concepts are set out in the UK Value Added Tax Act 1994 and, in Ireland, the Value‑Added Tax Consolidation Act 2010 (implementing the EU VAT Directive). In Northern Ireland, EU VAT rules continue to apply to goods under the Windsor Framework; services follow UK rules. Core features include: output tax charged at standard, reduced or zero rates; exempt supplies (for example, certain...

UK VAT Abuse of Rights (Halifax): Post-Brexit and Assimilated Law Framework, Leading Cases and Practical Application

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert

Practice notes

This PrACTice Note explores the EU doctrine of abUse of rights (also called abuse of law) in the VAT context, widely known as the Halifax principle. Although the doctrine can address both avoidance and fraudulent or evasive behaviour, this Note concentrates on its use in avoidance scenarios.

EU law and Brexit

VAT was historically a European tax shaped by EU law principles; therefore, any anti-avoidance measures needed to originate from, and be consistent with, those principles. Consequently, the UK’s domestic Ramsay principle has generally not been applied to VAT. (For more on Ramsay, see Practice Notes: Ramsay as a guide to statutory construction and Ramsay—reality and legal form). Following the UK’s exit from the EU, certain EU-derived rights and legislation were preserved in UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018) as retained EU law (REUL). In addition, the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (T(CT)A 2018) includes specific provisions addressing the ongoing relevance of EU law to the UK’s VAT rules...

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Jo Crookshank

Simmons & Simmons

Jo Crookshank is a VAT partner at Simmons & Simmons LLP and leads the technology, media and telecoms tax practice. Jo specialises in complex technical advice, supply chain and cross-border tax issues....

Gary Barnett

Simmons & Simmons

Gary is a senior professional support lawyer in the corporate tax group at Simmons & Simmons. Before becoming a professional support lawyer, he qualified at another major international law firm and advised on a wide range of corporate tax and VAT matters, with a particular emphasis on M&A transactions. Gary became a professional support lawyer at Simmons & Simmons in 1996 and has since been responsible for developing the knowledge management strategy for the corporate tax group and providing support to the tax teams across Simmons & Simmons international network. Gary has written extensively on a wide range of tax topics and has previously contributed VAT commentary for De Voil Indirect Tax Service....

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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