Joey the Horse

No doubt everyone will have been excited to see the attendance of Joey the horse at the UK premier of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse this week Link to article on War Horse Premier. Although, like me, you might have been concerned as to the VAT implications of his foray to the UK.

Unlike “meat animals” the supply of horses is standard-rated, and so, in common with any racehorse, Joey could be expected to pay 20% import VAT on arrival. We would hope he could get around the relevant import duty and VAT under temporary importation relief, which would usually allow a temporary stay of up to two years in the EU. However, the legislation does refer to “import for training, breeding, veterinary
treatment, participation in a race, or grazing” and so we would probably want to seek a ruling on import for attendance at a movie premier.

Should Joey be paid attendance money, his position would be similar to that of racehorses; whilst prize money is usually outside the scope of VAT, attendance money or guaranteed prize money is subject to VAT. We would also need to look at the VAT establishment of the supplier who owns Joey (different to establishment for CT purposes) in order to determine whether the place of supply is in the UK or otherwise.