A worthy cause, which takes a couple of minutes to do – follow the link to the petition at No 10 and save mountain rescue across England & Wales (not sure of the arrangements for Scotland & NI!) from having to pay VAT on all their activities. You never know when you might be glad of their services!
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Is that ‘Make’ or ‘Keep’ them exempt?

My understanding is that they ARE exempt already

I thought the petition applied across the whole UK as VAT is a reserved matter.

They’re not exempt on many of the expensive items that they choose to buy.

All charities are exempt from paying VAT on certain things, like advertising and fuel etc, and MR’s ability to claim back/not pay VAT on its purchases would be governed by the same rules as all other charities. You would have to change the rules for all charities, not just MR, in order to increase the scope of any relief from VAT.

Having said that, charities that offer assitance or rescue at sea are able to claim exemption on purchases of equipment, boat maintenance etc, so there might be limited scope to extend an exemption to something similar.

druidh – Member

I thought the petition applied across the whole UK as VAT is a reserved matter.

Yep, any changes would cover the whole of the UK.