The Court of Appeal will hear HMRC’s appeal against the Upper Tribunal’s decision in favour of the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge between 31 January and 1 February 2017.

This case concerns whether the university was entitled to treat the VAT incurred on fund management fees as overhead expenditure and, therefore, recoverable as residual input tax in accordance with its partial exemption special method on the grounds that the investment activity, which was not an economic activity in its own right, generated income that facilitated and supported the overall operation of the university. The Upper Tribunal found in favour of the University.