HMRC have today commented on the responses they received following the release of the ‘draft’ guidance in July 2014. The update is included below; but as a summary – they are expecting to release the first tranche of updated guidance in January 2015. The rest will be updated as part of a rolling programme which they are hoping to complete early in 2015, and until then, the NHS should continue to rely on existing guidance in force.

Update on publication of COS guidance for Government Departments and NHS bodies

As you know HMRC are producing a single book of guidance for Government departments and NHS bodies on Contracted Out Services (COS) and claiming VAT refunds under section 41(3) of the VAT Act 1994. We shared an initial draft with you in July 2014 and received a large number of responses, some after the mid-September closing date. We would like to thank you all for your comments and bring you up to date on our progress.

“We are updating the guidance to reflect your drafting suggestions and populating the Headings with additional examples where these have been requested. This is taking a bit longer than we had anticipated and we will publish the first tranche of guidance for 58 Headings on the HMRC website in January 2015. On the remaining Headings you asked for more detailed guidance and examples and we are working on these; they will be published as part of a rolling programme with a view to completing the process by early 2015.

Until the guidance for a particular Heading is published you can continue to rely on existing guidance which remains extant. We would also like to reiterate that this guidance seeks to clarify what can be claimed under the Headings and will not contain any policy changes.”

Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you wish to discuss the above further.