The Heritage Alliance (THA) has provided an essential update on VAT at European level.
THA writes:
The Alliance responded to the EC consultation on existing VAT legislation (4 January 2013).
The response focused on the importance, on the basis of environmental issues and energy efficiency, for retaining the option in Annexe III of VAT Directive 2006/112/EC (2006) for member states to apply a reduced rate of VAT on repair and maintenance work to residential buildings in private ownership. Although the UK government has not yet taken up that option, the Alliance is keen it should remain a possibility.
Quoting two recent reports, the Ecorys report to HLF and English Heritage on ‘The Economic Impact of Maintaining and Repairing Historic Buildings in England’ and the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance’s (STBA) ‘Responsible Retrofitting’, the Alliance’s response concludes:
‘We therefore recommend that the option to apply a lower rate of VAT on work to residential buildings in private ownership be retained in Annexe III. If this option were to be removed, it would conflict with the five EU priorities for 2020, the third of which relates to climate change / energy…’
‘We consider that priority should be given to research to understand the energy behaviour and performance of traditional buildings, including addressing the lack of baseline data on which to make judgments relating to energy improvements. This would also support the first of the 2020 priorities, which is that 3% of the EU’s GDP should be invested in R&D.’
For the STBA background and report see: LINK
See the full THA response at: LINK
