In Rushby Dance and Fitness Centre & Ors v HMRC [2025] TC09534, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found that private tuition in various styles of dance was standard-rated for VAT because the tuition was not in a subject ordinarily taught in a school or university.
Four appellants (two partnerships, a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and a sole trader) were Registered for VAT by HMRC.
- HMRC’s decision was made on the basis that their supplies were standard-rated for VAT.
- The appellants argued that their supplies were exempt from VAT, and Appealed against HMRC's decision accordingly.
- The styles of dance taught by the appellants, and considered by the First Tier Tribunal (FTT), included ballroom, Latin, sequence and dance-exercise hybrid classes (‘dancercise’).
The VAT Exemption for private tuition is contained in Item 2 of Group 6 in Schedule 9 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994.
It applies to 'the supply of private tuition, in a subject ordinarily taught in a school or university, by an individual teacher acting independently of an employer'.
The FTT found that:
- In all cases, the tuition was provided by an individual teacher acting independently of an employer.
- In the case of the LLP, HMRC had initially argued that the non-designated members were not providing the tuition on their own account and at their own risk, but HMRC agreed to withdraw this aspect of their case because it would highlight a distinction between an LLP (legal personality) and a general partnership (no legal personality) that HMRC did not wish to make.
- ‘Dance’ is a subject that is ordinarily taught in schools or universities. The GCSE and A-level syllabus requires students to learn various unspecified styles of dance.
- Ballroom, Latin and modern sequence dance were not subjects ordinarily taught in schools or universities. They were separate styles or categories of dance, and there was no evidence of them being commonly taught in schools or universities as a component of a dance course.
- The ‘dancercise’ classes may have met generic targets contained in the National Curriculum for physical education, but this was insufficient for a particular form of exercise to qualify for the VAT exemption.
- In the absence of evidence to show exactly what was involved in the ‘dancercise’ classes, the FTT could not accept that they qualified for the private tuition exemption.
The appeal was dismissed.
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