VATWELF4030 | Spiritual welfare: legal basis for exemption: law

Item 9 of Group 7 of Schedule 9 to the VAT Act 1994 exempts the supply by—(a) a charity or (b) a state-regulated private welfare institution or agency … of welfare services and of goods supplied in connection with those welfare services.

For the purpose of this exemption spiritual welfare is defined in Note (6):

In item 9 “welfare services” means services which are directly connected with -

(c) the provision of spiritual welfare by a religious institution as part of a course of instruction or a retreat, not being a course or a retreat designed primarily to provide recreation or a holiday,

Mill House Retreats (Decision No TC08315) was not a state-regulated body within the meaning of Note (8) to Group 7 because it was not regulated by a Government Minister or other authority under a provision of a public general Act. The retreat was not registered as a charity either and so its services did not qualify for the exemption from VAT under this provision.