Court Reference: C-353/00
This was a referral from the UK to the ECJ on whether a payment formed part of the consideration under Art 11A(1)(a) of the Sixth VAT Directive (now Article 73 of the Principal VAT Directive (2006/112) which provides:
‘… the taxable amount shall include everything which constitutes consideration obtained from the customer or a third party, including subsidies directly linked to the price of supply’.
Whether a payment by the Energy Action Grants Agency (responsible for implementing the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme) to Keeping Newcastle Warm (KNW) was liable to VAT. KNW gave advice on improving energy efficiency in dwellings to householders and sometimes carried out the work. There was a maximum grant of £10 for each piece of energy advice given and in practice that amount was paid for every piece of energy advice given. Output tax had been accounted for on these sums and although KNW agreed the sum was consideration, they argued the amount was not directly linked to the final price and so was outside the scope of VAT.