½Û×ÓÊÓƵ

General principles

Public houses can be owned and operated in a variety of ways, and the way in which they operate may impact on their VAT position and dictate the VAT issues that are particularly pertinent to them. Four types of public house are as follows:

Managed houses

These are public houses owned (usually) by a brewery. The manager, an employee of the brewery, runs the operation. The retail sales of beers, wines, spirits, etc will be supplied by the brewery, who will be required to account for VAT on such sales.

The brewery may franchise the catering side of the operation to the manager. In this instance, the catering services provided become a private enterprise of the manager and, as such, these activities are considered separately for VAT registration purposes. The normal registration and liability rules will apply if the registration limits are exceeded.

A public house does not have to be owned by a brewery to be a managed house. The term can apply equally