Bean counters

Some weeks ago, while browsing at the Raynes Park waiting room library, I came across an issue of what looks like the house magazine of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales, flying under the rather grand name of 'Economia'. Glossy affair, A4 format, half a centimetre thick, flat spine. This last meaning that it is made like a paperback, rather than being stapled in the way of, for example, the NYRB. Rather grand looking editorial advisory board including, for example, one Sacha Romanovitch, the Head of People and Culture on the National Leadership Board at Grant Thornton. A very grand sounding, if not very informative - not to me anyway - job title. Altogether a magazine which takes itself seriously.

Leafing through the magazine as my train wended its way through south London on its way to Epsom, I was intrigued by an item about the Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club. It seems that the golf club had been in dispute with HMRC about whether VAT was chargeable on the green fees paid by non-members, and not satisfied with the decision of the men on the spot, invoked tribunal procedures.

I now know that the First Tier Tribunal operates a six chambered system under the auspices of HM Courts and Tribunals Service, the people who, as it happens, have an office in East Street, here in Epsom. If you don't like what you get there you might be able to go to the Second Tier Tribunal, a paltry four chambered affair, but with the standing of the High Court of Justice. And if you are still not satisfied, there is the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJE), seemingly the ultimate authority on matters VAT.

The golf club went for the full monty, ultimately getting a decision in their favour from the CJE and the case, at the time of writing of the article, was back with the Second Tier Tribunal.

All of which must have cost a small fortune in legal fees, not to mention accountants' fees, leading me to wonder who drove the whole business forward. Why did the golf club bother? Golf club members might not be too happy about speculative legal expenses and might have preferred to settle for the status quo and keeping prices down in the nineteenth hole. So who paid? Some eager young beaver from the Dorset accountancy fraternity wanting to make his or her name? Economia not very informative at all on that side of things.

PS: if you really want to know what Sacha is and what he or she does, google will give you the relevant page on the Grant Thornton website. Second from the top when I tried just now.

Reference 1: http://www.bridportgolfclub.co.uk/.