A company based in Austria that issued new shares. The company reclaimed the input tax on the related costs. The tax authorities disallowed the input tax deduction as it related to the exempt supply of shares. The company won, it was decided that the issue of new shares did not constitute a supply and that all the input tax can be allocated to overhead, provided that the transaction took place for a business purpose, such as raising capital for the business.
HM Revenue & Customs issued Business Brief 12/05 and 21/05 following this decision.