Pilates teachers may be able to make their students more flexible and lithe – but they cannot make the VAT exemption which applies to private tuition stretch to cover the hugely popular exercise, the First-tier Tribunal has ruled.
A veteran teacher of the discipline, who was amongst the first to introduce Pilates to Britain, argued that it assists adherents in achieving ‘self-alignment’ and ‘puts people in touch with their integrated being’. Pilates ‘demanded an intellectual understanding of the living, moving body’; she had taught it at universities and it had made its way onto the curriculum of several leading schools.
However, her argument that she was not obliged to register for VAT and was entitled to a substantial VAT rebate met stiff opposition from HM Revenue and Customs. In dismissing her appeal, the Tribunal ruled that her Pilates lessons did not fall within the private tuition exemption contained in the VAT Act 1994. Although her classes were ‘educational in character’, Pilates was not a subject which was commonly or ordinarily taught in schools or universities.