SLCC Boot Camp: Town and Parish Council VAT essentials and key questions

Rosie Jones, Indirect Taxes Consultant at PSTAX, joined the SLCC Boot Camp in Portsmouth to deliver a thirty-minute introduction to VAT for town and parish councils. The popular session drew around fifty clerks and officers and generated a high level of interaction from the start.

VAT registration was the topic that prompted the most discussion. Many delegates wanted clarity on how project income, grants, and trading activity can affect the registration threshold, and how to plan early so unexpected liabilities do not arise later in the year. Rosie took the group through the core principles that clerks need to understand, including when VAT applies, how the de minimis test works, and the practical steps councils should take when they are close to the limit.

The session also gave Rosie the chance to outline the wider support available to clerks including PSTAX’s newly launched all-taxes support subscription for Town and Parish Councils, Local Council Tax Club. Also mentioned was the tax helpline delivered by the PSTAX team and where asset-transfer queries can benefit from specialist VAT input. Delegates responded well to the practical examples and several asked follow-up questions after the session ended.

For clerks who want more structured guidance, SLCC will be hosting two VAT training sessions with PSTAX in February, delivered by PSTAX Indirect Taxes Consultant, Trevor Steel. These will run on 12 February and 16 February and are designed to give local councils a clear, practical understanding of VAT rules, VAT-registration requirements, and project planning. Full details are here or available through SLCC’s training pages.

Events like the SLCC Boot Camp give clerks a trusted space to ask the questions that matter to their day-to-day work. They also give us a clear view of the issues councils are tackling, which is why we continue to invest our time, training, and specialist support in this sector. Our team has worked with local councils for many years, and the support we provide is written with the realities of clerk workloads in mind.

If your council is reviewing its VAT position, planning for projects and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) or approaching the VAT-registration threshold, we can guide you through the details and find a clear way forward.

Contact the team