Jane Baker offers words of support for Eventia in welcoming new legislation on behalf of M&E industry – TOMS.
Working
within the Tour Operators Margin Scheme (TOMS) is a challenge faced by
all UK events industry agencies who want to deliver an economical
service to clients while maintaining a competitive edge over event
agents outside the EU. Since 2010 the entire cost of any events serviced
by an event agency, where travel and/or accommodation is included in
the proposal, have been subject to TOMS. For the client this means they
are prevented from reclaiming any local or EU VAT, as the rules dictate
that the agency cannot issue a VAT invoice, subsequently increasing the
cost of the event.
The scheme was introduced in the EU to
simplify tax accounting for tour operators, but, has also affected event
agencies like ours who traditionally deal with travel and accommodation
as a part of creating and managing events for their business clients.
Following
a considerable amount of lobbying, Eventia, the official trade body of
the events and live marketing industry, at the end of September 2013,
achieved a significant agreement with HMRC, by which only travel and
accommodation will come under TOMS rules.
As a member of the
Eventia TOMS working party I think the work we are doing is starting to
come to fruition – we have seen a small change in the way HMRC will
treat TOMS/VAT for event spend and this is extremely encouraging. We
will continue to support Eventia in their efforts to lobby both UK and
EU government bodies for further changes which we fully support as it
will benefit our clients, our business growth strategy and the industry.
Any comments? Email sarah@mashmedia.net
