NHS. Photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

HMRC brought a case against a branch of NHS hospitals to the Supreme Court over whether VAT should have been charged on hospital car parking fees, and they’ve succeeded.

Today marks the end of a five-year legal battle through each court stage over VAT on parking tickets used by patients, visitors, and hospital staff at 14 hospitals belonging to Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

The NHS Trust provides pay-and-display car parking at its hospitals, including North Tyneside General Hospital and Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, and accounts for VAT at the standard rate (20 per cent) on the parking fees it charges.

The parking fees vary, but were noted to range from £2 per hour to £6 for a 24-hour stay.

In 2017,

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