Always bear in mind that if it’s too good to be true, there’s a catch!

Unfortunately, as of late unscrupulous call-centre agencies have been targeting businesses with misleading information regarding CCL exemption and a reduction to 5% VAT. However in the majority of cases this is just a ruse in order for businesses to give up confidential contract information, which in turn is sold on to any number of other sales type agencies as a lead..so beware.

These are clearly cynical sales agencies abusing businesses trust for their own financial ends.

To illustrate ; a Torse client [a large electric appliance retailer] was contacted by one of these sales agencies, advising they should be exempt as they fell into the ‘de minimis (1) category of energy usage’.Sensibly the client sought validation regarding these claims from Torse, and after checking their details, it was determined that not only was this client in fact using energy in excess of the maximum allowance indicating they needed to pay CCL but that they used over four times the maximum allowance.

The truth is, some businesses are in fact exempt from paying CCL for a variety of reasons which can be complicated, common exemption reasons are: residential accommodation for students or school pupils and premises being hospices, monasteries or nunneries. As such, we highly recommend to all businesses that if you receive any phone calls with regards to CCL exemption and VAT reduction please contact our Client and Supplier Management Team at Torse for further assistance.

For an overview of Climate Change Levy including ‘Q&A’ download the Torse CCL Guide

(1) DE MINIMIS – according to HMRC small (de minimis) usage of fuel and power may automatically be treated as supplies for domestic use, even when they are supplied to a business. The de minimis limits for electricity are as follows: a metered supply to a person at any premises where the electricity (together with any other electricity provided to him at the same premises by the same supplier) is provided at a rate not exceeding 1,000kWh per month (12,000 kWh per annum)