Kevin Hall
Kevin is a VAT specialist. He provides clear, practical advice to businesses and their advisers to help them navigate the complexities thrown up by this awkward tax.
About Kevin
Kevin advises a wide variety of clients on VAT issues, including property deals and construction works, international and cross-border transactions, schemes for small businesses, financial services, supply chain reviews, aircraft/yachts, mergers & acquisitions and reorganisations, HMRC investigations, partial exemption and margin schemes.
Kevin works with businesses but equally with accountants and other advisers to achieve solutions which are suitable for VAT, other taxes and most importantly for the commercial operation itself.
He also writes and lectures on VAT and he has contributed to HMRC’s VAT Manuals, specifically in relation to financial advisers.
Kevin Hall is a consummate professional who has advised myself and my clients on several occasions. His insightful and surgical knowledge of the increasingly convoluted VAT regulations is second to none and he has been able to clarify and ultimately resolve a series of complex issues on our behalf. Whereas VAT issues were always the most challenging to deal with, now I can simply call Kevin in the enormously reassuring knowledge that he will quickly grasp the situation and will be able to propose a solution.
Experience
Able to advise businesses or assist their advisers in a wide number of issues, Kevin has assisted with the following:
- Transfer of a going concern (TOGC): the reorganisation of a developer business including a £79m property into a new VAT group was able to utilise TOGC reliefs, saving VAT of £15.8m, relying on a prior case lost by HMRC.
- Input tax recovery: A business had incurred £625k of VAT on fuel costs for its employees but had not recovered this. Kevin assisted to apply for recovery and negotiated with HMRC when they raised a prolonged resistance, until the case was overturned within HMRC and the VAT refunded.
- Disclosures: A business had omitted to record a £600k VAT liability and risked penalties of between £180k and £600k. Kevin had the penalty reduced and also negotiated to have payment suspended so that nothing was paid.
- Registration and deregistration: assisted a large exempt property rental business to register for VAT due to reverse charge purchases of advertising services from Ireland
- VAT liabilities on goods and services supplied: The applicable rate of VAT for supplies involving different elements is complex. Kevin has won disputes with HMRC and has supported cases to Tribunal.
- Capital Goods Scheme adjustments: Kevin assists clients using property to manage the risks arising from the Capital Goods Scheme.
- Option to Tax: Millions of pounds of VAT liability have been correctly avoided with Kevin's help, where an option to tax enabling the recovery of VAT on costs is otherwise invalid or ineffective.
- Partial exemption reviews: a business began making exempt rentals of a new apartment block despite having recovered VAT due to their original intention to sell new flats, but a solution was found to preserve almost all the £164k of input tax recovery
- DIY Housebuilders Scheme: Kevin has assisted individuals constructing their own homes to recover VAT from HMRC, most recently £17m.
- Land and property transactions: a £219m construction project was about to lose its zero-rating status and generating a VAT liability of £44m, but after nine months Kevin was able to reverse the position with HMRC.
- Financial services: a business provided £8m of guarantees for a bank loan to an overseas group company and Kevin guided the client through this complex field.
- VAT advice on corporate transactions: the supply of management services is often considered to be a solution to ensure funds arrive in the correct group company, and Kevin assists to plan these supplies in detail to ensure mixed supply doctrine does not result in some tax being irrecoverable.
Recent articles
Kevin regularly writes and lectures on VAT and is well published on the subject, including writing for HMRC’s VAT Manuals.
Kevin has published an article about the Labour Party's proposal that fees for education be taxed for VAT, which could have huge implications across the sector. Kevin says, "With careful management, the changes do not have to mean that fees must increase by 20% overnight. There are opportunities to reduce significantly the impact of any future new VAT liabilities." To read Kevin's article please click here.
Kevin has also commented in articles on this subject in:
Separately, Kevin has also recently been published by Taxation magazine about a UK VAT registration issue where there is a question over VAT implications around where a company established for VAT.
For further articles please see our main Knowledge Base page.
Career
After graduating from Oxford University, Kevin qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has specialised in VAT since 1998.
He was a member of the prestigious Gabelle specialist tax consultancy which won the tax industry's top award in 2014 (Taxation Award). He was also part of the Markel Tax team which won the same award again in 2020.
Memberships
Kevin is a qualified chartered accountant and member of the ICAEW.
He is also a member of the VAT Practitioners Group.
Interests
Kevin is genuinely interested in VAT and all the different businesses it brings him into contact with.
He also enjoys all things relating to the the ancient world.
