New VAT charge on Council generated searches
6th January 2017
HMRC has stated that VAT should be charged on Council generated searches due to the fact they are a refined data source.
This is not compulsory at present and only a handful of Councils in the North East are implementing this charge as of January 1st 2017.
The remaining have until the 1st April 2017 to start charging the VAT.
This new VAT implementation is for Council generated Local Searches only and we will keep our clients up to date as soon as we can if the new VAT implementation affects the amount charged for their property searches.
VAT is already applied for those searches carried out by the private companies on behalf of search providers and the implementation of this VAT would ‘even the playing field’ between Councils and the private search organisations.
