Summary

The appellant is a further education corporation providing further and higher education and vocational training programs. This is an appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT).   The appeal is a lead case, behind which a number of other colleges’ appeals are stayed, under a Rule 18 Direction made by the FTT which identified three common or related issues of fact or law. This appeal is primarily concerned with whether the provision of education and /or vocational training by the appellant provided free of charge to students and funded by grants from two government funding agencies is a “supply of services for consideration” for the purposes of Article 2(1)(c) Principal VAT Directive (“PVD”) and if so whether it is an “economic activity” for the purposes of Article 9 PVD.

The FTT decided the appellant’s provision of education/training was not a “supply of services