»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp

Businesses will often request amendments to their approved special methods. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappse may be necessary for a number of reasons; most often changes to the business activities. Officers should however be aware that any such request is in fact a request for a new special method. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp approval of such an amendment is the approval of a new special method. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp implication of such approval is that the Commissioners believe that the method as a whole reflects the use of input tax by the business and gives a fair and reasonable result. A Declaration will also be required in these circumstances (see PE43000).

»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Tribunal decision in the case concerning »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp University Court of the University of Glasgow (VTD 17744) demonstrates this point. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp University submitted proposals to amend their special method by isolating a sports facility “Garscubeâ€� and applying alternative apportionment calculations to it. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Commissioners considered that all the University’s sports facilities needed to be addressed and refused the proposals, but invited further proposals taking into account the activities of the University as a whole. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp University appealed this decision and the Tribunal considered whether the decision was reasonable.

In looking at the provision of sporting facilities by the University as a sector of its activities, the Tribunal decided that it was:

“…neither fair nor reasonable to ‘cherry pick� Garscube as being the place where input tax recovery might be made to obtain that benefit while ignoring the University’s general activities within the sector…�

In conclusion, the Tribunal said that it is unreasonable to suggest that a specific area of a special method can be addressed without consideration of the appropriateness of the special method as a whole. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp Commissioners were therefore justified in refusing to consider the changes requested in isolation from the rest of the method.

A refusal to approve a change in a special method may mean that input tax incurred by the business is not dealt with specifically by the existing method and that a gap occurs (see PE48000 - ‘Gaps� in special methods.