Whistl loses VAT exemption battle

Royal Mail’s biggest rival in the UK postal market, Whistl have lost a High Court Challenge to have the former state-owned postal operator’s VAT exemption removed, reports Reuters. As part of its status as Britain’s six-day-a-week universal service provider, Royal Mail is exempt from paying VAT, currently set at 20 %, on revenues it receives from its service to deliver mail collected and sorted by rivals.

In a long case against Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs, Dutch-owned Whistl, formerly known as TNT Post UK, argued that the exemption contravened EU law, but the UK High Court ruled on Thursday that it was compatible.

Whistl said in a statement to Reuters it was reviewing the judgement and would then consider the legal options for appeal.

whistl is headquartered in Marlow, west of London, and has been providing postal services in the UK since 2004, taking advantage of the liberalisation of the postal market under European legislation.

The company is one of the biggest Downstream Access operators in the UK, collecting business mail from customers before sorting it and handing it to Royal Mail for the last mile stage of delivery. It claims to collect 22% of UK mail, processing more than 4bn items a year.