Animal charity hit with £12k bill over VAT dispute

An animal charity has been charged more than £12,000 after its energy provider said it had been paying the wrong rate of VAT.

Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre in Beckford, near Tewkesbury, was informed by British Gas that it had incorrectly been paying VAT at the 5% charity rate, rather than the standard 20% rate.

Charity founder Caroline Gould said she believed that although the centre operated a small shop, it was entitled to pay the lower rate because more than 60% of the premises are used for charitable purposes.

British Gas has been approached for comment.

Ms Gould said that there had never previously been a problem over the matter before the backdated charge but British Gas said some of the site's activity is classed as a business, meaning it would now move to the higher VAT rate.

"As a charity, we've always submitted a VAT declaration and it's always been approved straight away. We did the same with British Gas when we started with them, which was in November 2023," Ms Gould added.

"The first thing we had was just an email saying that they no longer thought we were entitled to the 5% VAT anymore, so from now on, they would be taking the 20%.

"I opened the bank account one morning a couple of weeks ago and found that they'd taken £12,200 out of our account."

Ms Gould said that she believed that the utility company had overlooked the fact that the charity raised significant funds outside of the hospital building.

"They can see from our accounts that we do a lot of sale of goods, but we've got two charity shops," she said.

"We sell on eBay, which is done by volunteers outside of the hospital. We go and do talks, which is outside of the hospital. We do outside fundraisers.

"So the vast majority of our sale of goods, as they've put it, is outside of the hospital. But they won't listen."

Vale Wildlife Hospital, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024, relies on public donations to continue its work, with running costs of about £75,000 a month.

It treated more than 8,000 animals last year, including foxes, badgers, birds, rabbits and hedgehogs.

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