Notification regarding the wall coating scam

New Policy paper has been published with the help of Barnsley Bate.

Dear Mr BATE,
Thanks to your assistance in this matter, together with Dudley Trading Standards, we have managed to change HMRC policy which has been published!
No doubt we will catch up soon.

Sent to Barnsley Bate via email from

Senior Trading Standards Officer and Intelligence Analyst
Consumer Protection and Investigations Team
Dudley Trading Standards
01384 814675

Briefing can be found here,

Copy below

Policy paper

Revenue and Customs Brief 9 (2018): VAT – damp proofing products

Published 20 July 2018

1. Purpose

This brief clarifies HMRC’s policy on the VAT liability of damp proofing products like paints, creams and gels. These products are typically applied to the exterior walls of houses to prevent damp.

2. Readership

Businesses that manufacture and retail damp proofing products, and businesses that apply these products to the exterior walls of residential accommodation.

3. Background

Businesses that make supplies of installing certain energy-saving materials (ESMs) in residential accommodation to final customers qualify for the reduced rate of VAT. This includes services of installing the materials and the materials themselves, when they are supplied as part of an installation. Business to business supplies of ESMs are always standard rated.

4. Issue

HMRC has become aware of a number of businesses that are marketing damp proofing products as ESMs. This implies that supplies of applying these products to the walls of residential accommodation are eligible for the reduced rate.

This treatment is supported by the Tribunal in the case Safeguard Europe Ltd v HMRC [2013] UK First-tier Tribunal 145 (TC) (“Safeguard”), which decided that one such product known as Stormdry qualified as an ESM. However, as this is a First-tier Tribunal decision it is not binding and cannot be used as a precedent.

5. Clarification of HMRC’s policy

HMRC has reviewed the VAT treatment of these products following the Safeguard decision. It has concluded that these products do not qualify as ESMs for the following reasons:

• the dominant purpose of these products is to water-proof exterior walls rather than improving thermal efficiency
• there is no conclusive evidence that these products improve the thermal efficiency of brickwork
• if such evidence became available, it is likely that any improved thermal efficiency would be incidental to the dominant purpose of the products which is water-proofing
• the products are not normally described as insulators
• the products are sold (or ‘held out for sale’) as water-and-damp proofing products and not insulators
• the legislation refers to ESMs being “installed”, which indicates that the legislation more naturally refers to typical insulators such as cavity wall insulation rather than the damp proofing products which are ‘applied’

HMRC does not regard damp proofing paints, creams or gels as ESMs. Therefore, the sale and services of applying these products to the walls of residential accommodation are standard rated for VAT purposes.

6. Implementation

HMRC will apply this policy with effect from 1 September 2018 to give businesses time to change their marketing and update their systems.

Further guidance on ESMs can be found in VAT Notice 708/6 and this will be updated to reflect this clarification of policy.

7. Action required

Businesses should account for VAT at the standard rate on all sales and applications of these products on supplies made on or after 1 September 2018 and, if necessary, change their marketing. This Revenue and Customs Brief overrides any decisions that HMRC has issued that are inconsistent with this policy clarification.