Mountain rescue volunteers and VAT

There was a story in this week's Private Eye (sorry, no link available) about how volunteer mountain rescue teams are having to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds of VAT on their equipment.

The government says that European rules mean that VAT can't be waived, but apparently the EU says that this is not the case.

Proof of this would seem to come from the fact that the RNLI doesn't pay VAT on its equipment. And Gordon Brown recently announced a waiver of VAT on the charity single for Haiti.

So why should the mountain rescue teams be made to pay?

It's obviously a big issue in certain parts of the country and the Lib Dems have said they will refund the VAT.

And there's an early day motion on the issue, too.