There are Two Types of Vat Exemption 0% VAT & 5% VAT
VAT Relief for Stairlifts
If you’re disabled or have a long-term illness, you won’t be charged VAT on our Stairlifts designed or adapted for your own personal or domestic use. Also, you won’t be charged VAT on:
- the installation and any extra work needed as part of this
- repairs or maintenance
- spare parts or accessories
The product and your disability have to qualify.
Qualifying products or services
Products designed or adapted for a disability qualify. For example, certain types of:
- adjustable beds
- stair lifts
- wheelchairs
- medical appliances to help with severe injuries
- alarms
- braille paper or low vision aids – but not spectacles or contact lenses
- motor vehicles – or the leasing of a motability vehicle
- building work like ramps, widening doors, installing a lift or toilet
How to get the Stairlift VAT free
To avoid paying VAT on your stairlift, your disability has to qualify. For VAT purposes, you’re disabled or have a long-term illness if:
- you have a physical or mental impairment that affects your ability to carry out everyday activities, eg blindness
- you have a condition that’s treated as chronic sickness, like diabetes
- you’re terminally ill
You don’t qualify if you’re elderly but able-bodied, or if you’re temporarily disabled.
You’ll need to confirm in writing that you meet these conditions. Your supplier may give you a form for this.
Reduced rate VAT on mobility aids for older people
Certain mobility aids installed in the home of a person aged 60 or over are subject to reduced rate VAT.
Who’s covered
The reduced rate of VAT applies to you if you are aged 60 or over and have a qualifying mobility aid supplied and installed in your own home, or a home shared with friends and relations.
You do not have to order and pay for the supply and installation personally, it can be ordered and paid for by someone else, or a charity, a local authority, housing association or any other organisation. But you cannot benefit from the reduced rate if you are having the work done in a residential home or similar establishment, it has to be in a private home.
Eligible customers will be aged 60 or over at the time when the supply and installation takes place. The reduced rate does not apply if you’re simply supplying an eligible item, you have to both supply and install it to apply the reduction.
Goods that can be supplied and installed at the reduced rate of VAT
Reduced rate of VAT on the supply and installation of these items:
- grab rails
- ramps
- stair lifts
- bath lifts
- built-in shower seats or showers containing built-in shower seats
- walk-in baths with sealable doors
Repairs of those goods once they have been installed are not eligible for relief and these mobility aids can only be reduced-rated if they’re supplied by the installer.
The reduced rate does not apply to general adaptations carried out in the home of a person over 60, such as widening passageways or building extensions.
How claim the reduced rate
You will need to show that you do qualify. You will have to sign a declaration.
If you cannot physically complete and sign the declaration, then a declaration by a relative, partner or other responsible person is acceptable.
Unsure if you are eligible?
There are severe penalties for making a false declaration. If you are in any doubt about whether you are eligible to purchase a stairlift without paying VAT, you should get advice from the VAT helpline on 0845 30 20 203.
You can also find out more information on the HM Revenue & Customs website
Help from your council
You can apply to your council for equipment or help to adapt your home if you have a disability. See also the Government information on VAT relief for disabled people.
Prestige Stairlifts is a Sussex based company and cover the whole of the South East of England including Kent, Sussex, Surrey and surrounding areas.