News 05.04.12


Operators told to ‘wake up’ on Atol agreements


Sophie Griffiths


AGENTS HAVE made an urgent plea to tour operators to “wake up” and start sending them Agency


Agreements ahead of the April 30 Atol deadline. The appeal came as the


Department for Transport prepared to publish its final version of the Atol reforms, which as TTGwent to press, was expected to come out on Thursday. The reforms, which have been criticised for leaving just three weeks to prepare for the changes, require agents to have Agency Agreements with tour operator partners in place by April 30. However, some agents said they had not received any documents from tour operators. Owner of Double S Travel Steve Pattenden said: “Not one tour


operator has been in touch with us, even those we have been dealing with for 20 years. “A lot of the tour operators are


on 0871 numbers, so all the time you are waiting to speak with someone, you’re getting charged. Why should we spend £10 trying to get a piece of paper from them? Unless they get in touch, we’ll just have to stop selling them.”


Neil Basnett, managing director


of Tana Travel, agreed: “We’ve had no phone calls at all. It is up to tour operators to get these agreements out to agents. But the CAA should be sending out a template on how it should be worded.” Advantage chief executive John McEwan also urged tour operators to get in touch and said the April 30 deadline was unrealistic. “There will have to be some latitude by the government on this,” he said. The CAA said details on what the


A ROARING START TO EASTER: Travel Counsellors has come up with a fun-filled TC Kids Easter programme on TCTV and online to help keep the kids entertained over the Easter period. Rory the Tiger from Haven Holiday’s kids club joined staff (and their little ones) at head office to launch the scheme, which features various activities and competitions. “Having Rory on set was a great way to launch the programme,” said sales director Malcolm Hingley.


04 05.04.2012


The current fee for an agent acquiring their own Small Business Atol is


£1,711


Agency Agreements should include would be released in its standard terms which would be published “very shortly” after the DfT released the final Atol reforms. However, with two bank holidays


over the Easter weekend, it looks unlikely that the CAA will be able to release anything before Tuesday.


Abta guide to VAT is questioned


VAT CONSULTATION


A TAX expert has called for a wider industry consultation with HMRC to fully investigate all the issues surrounding travel agents and VAT. This comes after Abta issued information to members saying it had confirmed with HMRC that VAT is not due on all card fees, and that it will be assisting members with HMRC submissions. But Damon Wright, director of VAT services at MHA MacIntyre Hudson,


A CAA spokesman said agents should be proactive in contacting tour operators but acknowledged that it was the “responsibility of both partners”. Aito chairman Derek Moore


agreed that agents and tour operators should be contacting each other. “There is a partnership between them both – if everyone sits and waits for everyone else, nothing will get done,” he warned. Meanwhile, Basnett warned some agents could struggle to pay for an Atol at this time of the year. The current fee for an agent acquiring their own Small Business Atol is £1,711. Members of an Accredited Body, of which Travel Counsellors is the only one so far, do not need to acquire their own Atol. Abta is expected to offer a reduced


rate as part of a co-administration scheme with the CAA but it has yet to be revealed how much this would cost.


“If it was June or July, agents would be in a better position, but at the moment there is a risk that agents won’t be able to comply, and therefore won’t be able to trade, and the government could end up with a whole load of failures on its hands. The situation is not even a farce now,” Basnett said, “it’s a tragedy.”


believes too much confusion remains and a wider consultation is needed. “Abta refers back to guidance it published in June 2011 which is full of opinion-based interpretation of the legislation. It admits that it has not stated what it has agreed with HMRC. Nor has HMRC,” he said. Wright also argues that there is not


sufficient clarity on which charges travel agents are liable to pay VAT on. “There are still more questions on when separate charges levied by travel agents are VAT exempt,” he said, citing cases where an agent is a member of a consortium and the consortium negotiates the merchant facility, or where the agent uses a credit card for dynamic packaging. “Given this, it is a shame that Abta appears to have ‘negotiated’ with


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