Government fights ruling on EV charging VAT cut that could make electric cars cheaper for all
HMRC says it plans to appeal a tribunal decision that could see the rate of VAT on some public chargers cut from 20 to five per cent
The UK Government is set to appeal a court decision that could see the price of public electric car charging drop significantly.
In February, community chargepoint operator Charge My Street and professional services network Deloitte brought forward and subsequently won a first-tier tribunal claiming that electric car drivers have been paying too much tax when utilising public infrastructure.
Public EV charging incurs a VAT rate of 20 per cent, which is higher than the five per cent charged on domestic outlets. However, in a statement posted on LinkedIn, Deloitte's legal representative, Oliver Jarratt, wrote: “We noticed that existing VAT law already says that the provision of less than 1,000 kWh per month of electricity to a person at any particular premises counts as “domestic” – always – so we believed the five per cent rate already should apply to public EV charging, provided it was under that limit.”
The Government has a different view on the matter, though, with HMRC telling Auto Express that it is “appealing this case, as our position is that standard rate VAT applies to electricity supplied through public EV charging infrastructure”.
Of course, even if HMRC’s appeal was rejected, not all chargers would benefit from a lower rate, anyway. With there being 730 hours in every month, rapid chargers outputting over 100kW would almost certainly hit the 1,000kWh limit very quickly. However, many of the slowest on-street 7kW chargepoints won’t ever hit that 1,000kWh limit unless they were plugged-in 24/7.
A cut in VAT for public charging would be immediately noticeable and could help bridge the price between public and home charging. According to EV charging site ZapMap, the average price for a 7kW charger is 54p per kWh, meaning a drop in VAT could save drivers roughly £5 for a full charge of a 60kWh EV like a Tesla Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive.
We’ll just have to wait and see as to which side is victorious. In the meantime, the CEO of public charging firm char.gy, John Lewis, called the Government’s intervention “a deeply disappointing decision, and one that sends entirely the wrong signal to the millions of people who rely on public charging.”
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