Petition To Exempt Air Ambulance Services From Vat On Fuel

[Fat Albert]

Serious motoring injuries are frequently serviced by Air Ambulances, please sign the petition at

http://epetitions.di...petitions/29349

The Air Ambulance Service is forced to meet rising fuel prices year on year including VAT. The Air Ambulance Service have saved successive governments millions and millions of pounds funded by charitable donations given by the general public to run what has proven to be an essential service.

Whilst the Lifeboat Service has been exempt from VAT on fuel costs since 1977, a similar privilege has not been afforded to the Air Ambulance Service;

We call on the government to have an urgent review of this situation and in doing so we call on the government to return in the form of grants to Air Ambulance Service providers all the future VAT which the Treasury collects from them so that the Air Ambulance Service is in practice exempt from paying VAT in the same way as the Lifeboat Service.

[Tigger]

Signed that for sure,

They should have been exept from tax years ago :yes:

[Vinny's Westie]

Signed, had a driver that needed the service once, unfortunately he didn't make it but a very needed service.

[Captain Colonial]

Signed, will also email my MP.

[Norman Verona]

I'll sign it but question why we're petioning for a cut in fuel tax when we should be DEMANDING this service is funded 100% by the government.

We don't raise money to run the road ambulances, the cost is met from the NHS budget.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Also signed.

[Captain Colonial]

Got a reply back from my MP today, thought you'd appreciate his response as follows (opening and closing pleasantries not included):

"Thank you for contacting me about VAT exemptions for air ambulance services.

I would like to begin by stating my support for the work of air ambulance crews, work which can be vital in emergency situations.

EU VAT agreements, entered into by successive governments, do not allow the UK, or any other member state, to extend unilaterally the scope of existing zero rates or to introduce new ones. Existing European law provides a specific exemption from VAT for the supply of certain equipment and services used for sea rescue. There is no equivalent provision for air ambulance rescue services.

However, there are a number of special VAT reliefs for charities that provide rescue or first aid services, from which the air ambulance rescue teams benefit. These charities are able to purchase free of VAT: medicines, medical equipment (including first-aid kits and stretchers), and to purchase/lease free of VAT the air ambulance itself. All of these reliefs are derogations from the normal EU VAT rules and are not enjoyed by charities in other member states.

I can assure you that Ministers are aware of the concerns you raise and of the important work carried out by air ambulance crews."

So read into that what you will...

[XTR2Turbo]

read into that we are governed from Europe ...

I always thought that aircraft fuel duty was minimal anyway so the amount of duty raised is not like car fuel so the VAt element will be much smaller in absolute terms anyway.

Couldn't the charity be VAT registered and claim it back ??

[daveac]

Alas, charitable status only allows you to claim VAT back where VAT exemptions exist on the goods/services you are buying. Happily, raising money for air ambulances is not generally too troublesome as most people recognise the value of the work consequently most have very comfortable coffers. The statutory ambulance service and other frontline charitable medical services, such as BASICS, are usually less fortunate: the former are tied to miserly govt funding and the latter don't have a big, noisy, flying advertising hoarding to help raise their profile. All that being said, it's still galling that hard won charitable funds from pockets of donors still finds it's way to Number 11 for systematic squandering!