An Upper Tier Tax Tribunal VAT case in November 2018 has left a construction business with a £221k bill for underpaid VAT and has highlighted the consequences of incorrectly zero-rating construction services.

The option to tax allows a business to charge VAT on the sale or rental of commercial property, or in other words, to make a taxable supply from what otherwise would be a VAT exempt supply.

Following a recent landmark case, buyers purchasing a derelict property could now be exempt from paying the additional 3% stamp duty charge or ‘second-home tax’ introduced in April 2016

Even with less than a month to go, there’s still considerable confusion in the market around what MTD means for businesses, and specifically the impact of not meeting the MTD deadline.

Ministers are expected to say today that foreign house buyers must pay a higher rate of stamp duty to buy a home in England or Northern Ireland.