VBURC2200 - Background and law: The law

EC law - relevant for periods up to 29 March 2019

Undertakers’ services were not among the mandatory exemptions listed in Article 135 of the Principal VAT Directive. However, Article 371 allowed Member States to continue to exempt certain exemptions that were in force on 1 January 1978, including:

Annex X, part B(4):

The supply of services by undertakers and cremation services and the supply of goods related thereto.

The terms of Article 371 do not allow the UK to extend the scope of the exemption beyond its application on 1 January 1978.

UK law

The relevant exemptions are contained in Group 8 of Schedule 9 to the VAT Act 1994, which covers:

Item No

1. The disposal of the remains of the dead.

2. The making of arrangements for or in connection with the disposal of the remains of the dead.