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This paragraph examines the deemed business of offices by virtue of VATA 1994, s 94(4).

For an overview of VAT and business more broadly, see V2.201.

The legislation provides that where a person (in the course or furtherance of a trade, profession or vocation) accepts an office, any services supplied by them as holder of the office are treated for the purposes of VAT as supplied in the course or furtherance of the business carried on by them¹. It follows, therefore, that remuneration will be taxed or exempted from tax in an identical fashion whether received by way of fee or salary. However, an employee is not regarded as a taxable person since he is not acting 'independently'².

In the case of Great Western Rly Co v Bater it was said that an office is 'a subsisting, permanent, substantive position, which had an existence independent of the person who filled it, and which went on and was filled in succession by successive holders'³. It has also been said that the test