In Charge My Street Ltd v HMRC [2026] TC09802, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found that electric vehicle charging supplied at public charging stations qualified for VAT reduced rating.
Charge My Street Ltd (CMS) supplied Electric Vehicle (EV) charging at charging stations in public places in the north of England, which it installed and operated.
- Some drivers used third-party apps to locate and pay at CMS’s charging stations.
- CMS considered that VAT was due on the supplies at the reduced rate of 5%, which applies to supplies of fuel and power for (or deemed for) domestic use.
- HMRC considered that VAT was due on the supplies at the standard rate, as stated in VAT Notice 701/19 (Fuel and Power):
- "The recharging of electric vehicles, when using public charging points, is always treated as standard rated for VAT. This is because these supplies are made at various places such as car parks, petrol stations and on-street parking, not to a person’s house or building."
- After receiving a written ruling to this effect, CMS appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT).
Relevant legislation
Item 1, Schedule 7A VATA 1994 provides that supplies of domestic fuel are reduced-rated. CMS argued that their supplies qualified for reduced rating under Note 5g:
"5 For the purposes of this Group, the following supplies are always for domestic use:
…
(g) a supply of electricity to a person at any premises where the electricity (together with any other electricity provided to him at the premises by the same supplier) was not provided at a rate exceeding 1000 kilowatt hours (kWh) a month."
The FTT found that:
- The phrase ‘to a person at any premises’ did not mean, as HMRC argued, ‘to a person at their premises’.
- The phrase ‘any premises’ does not mean, as HMRC argued, ‘any buildings’.
- Using its ordinary meaning, it could mean any identifiable property, including a defined public area such as a car park.
- Provided the supply met the 1,000 kWh de minimis test, it could be reduced-rated.
- The rate at which electricity was provided to a customer at each charging point location by CMS did not exceed 1,000 kWh a month.
- There was nothing in the legislation to support HMRC’s argument that when an ad hoc supply was made by CMS, the rate used to determine the de minimis supply test in Note 5g should be 1,000 kWh divided by the number of days in a month (e.g. 1,000 / 30 = 33 kWh).
- In cases where a third-party app was used to pay for charging, the third-party was acting either as Principal or as a commission agent.
- The FTT rejected CMS’s argument that the third-party could not be the supplier because it did not have the infrastructure to provide charging facilities itself.
- The FTT did not have the information required to determine whether supplies made via third-party apps met the 1,000 kWh de minimis test.
The appeal was allowed, in principle, and in part.
Editor's comment
This case contradicts HMRC’s long-held policy that electric vehicle charging at public charging stations does not qualify for reduced rating. CMS would next need to agree on the amount of sales made to third parties acting as principals, as these would be unlikely to meet the de minimis test for reduced rating.
We will wait to see if HMRC appeal this decision.
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