29 March 2021 
Andrea Marshall, Tax Specialist
Update as at 25 March 2021. Andrea has agreed the following with HMRC, given that most universties will ahve submitted annual adjustments before the RCB was issued:
Option 1
If COVID 19 has not impacted the university and/or subsidiaries, the adjustment that has been made on the January (or April) 2021 VAT return stands and no further action needs to be taken.
Option 2
If COVID 19 has impacted the university and/or subsidiaries, our members:
23/3/21
HMRC has issued this Policy paper in RCB 4/21 on temporary alterations to partial exemption methods, where the pandemic has caused distortion. HMRC will be using an accelerated process to make sure coronavirus-related changes to partial exemption methods are considered, and where appropriate, approved swiftly.
Andrea will be discussing this on the call with HMRC tomorrow and will hopefully provide further clarification, given that universities will have probably already carried out their PE annual adjustment on their January VAT return.
