Discussions with the Treasury on the hospice VAT refund that was announced in the Autumn Statement are going well. The Government appear totally committed to it. I cannot go into detail yet for obvious reasons but I think it will end up being more generous than some expect.

We are all working towards a 1 April implementation date. There will be two Finance Acts this year, it being an election year and we really want the measure to be in the first one.

Although the detail of the scheme will only be announced in March I would recommend that hospices start to  consider if their accounting systems will be able to cope. Whatever scheme is adopted you will need to be able to record the VAT incurred on your palliative care which some hospices do not currently do. If you are negotiating a new VAT recovery method, or considering one then you might want to delay things for a couple of months.