In RSR Sports Limited vs HMRC [2019] UKFTT 678, TC07450, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found that the provision of a holiday camp was a childcare enterprise, even though sports activities were an important element of the services provided.

  • RSR is an Ofsted-registered company, providing holiday camps which included sports training and child care.
  • The staff at RSR were not required to have any teaching or coaching qualifications but simply to ensure that the children were kept busy with a variety of activities and were kept safe.

The issue was whether the provision of holiday camps was exempt “services… closely linked to the protection of children and young persons” and the supply of “welfare services”.

HMRC argued that the holiday camp services included both a standard rated activities element and an exempt childcare element.

RSR appealed on the basis that its staff was merely supervising activities and hence the principal activity of all their services was child care. The care was no different from the after-school clubs and so should all be exempt.

The FTT held that holiday camp services amounted to a single composite supply of which the predominant element was child care, as opposed to the provision of activities, and therefore they fell within the scope of the above provisions and qualified for the exemption.

The FTT allowed the appeal.

HMRC have not chosen to appeal this decision.

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RSR Sports Limited vs HMRC