1st July 2009, 09:44 PM
It's a fair point but I doubt archaeologists would be able to persuade anyone either way. I had a look at the HMRC stuff about building and what was exempt and it doesn't seem particularly straight forward - some stuff about building for charities, communal buildings, and, interestingly approved work on a Listed Building or SM. Does that mean if someone had to have a building recording or watching brief carried out on either type of site as a requirement of an approved alteration that could be VAT rated 0%? Similarly, in some of the cases mentioned above could it not then be included in as part of the construction? What about a company that carried out construction and archaeological work too? What happens with other work though? If you were doing electrical work on as part of rennovation or building which was otherwise rated 0% could you do the same? Given the occassional debate on this thread and elsewhere about what is or isn't the case with charities compared to companies etc (although I can't say that I can find any certain differences) it would be a lot easier if archaeological work was simply rated 0%.