Whilst that might be so written, reading on this and other forums there have been instances in the last week or 2 where HMRC have said treat Bitcoins as currency, and the guy who went to court argued that vouchers are not taxable, he won and did not have to pay any Vat. So I would suggest VAT is not applicable.
Could you provide the links? It would be quite an important milestone in Bitcoin's recognition if this were the case.
I have no knowledge of the actually instances but it is reported to be happening online by quite a few people so I presume there will be caselaw and presidents set. Here are the 2 I picked up within 2 minutes of typing Bitcoin and Vat into Google.
ciaranmurray 6 days ago −
I personally know a bitcoin trader who was asked to pay VAT. He took HRMC to court over their clasification of bitcoin as vouchers and therefore liable to VAT and won. He won because vouchers aren't liable to VAT either
Mark Cross 6 days ago −
Well I had a telephone call back from HMRC this week regarding captial gains tax and dividends as income on mining. The advice given TO ME, was treat it like money. If HMRC continues to give conflicting information, then trading will just move overseas.
Both of these were from comments on http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-uk-hmrc-suggests-bitcoins-taxable-vouchers/ but I imagine if you pm'd them or researched some more you could find more instances of this, as I have seen quite a few comments on this topic over the last 2 or 3 weeks with lots of people claiming the HMRC is saying quite a few different things.
I like the idea of the gambling winnings being tax exempt, its a shame none of the gambling sites are registered with gambling authorities or else this may be a good idea. Although it does sound a tad dodgy I would definitely take pro advice before trying this.
Unfortunately, this isn't evidence. Unless there is a scan of written correspondence with HMRC where they have explicitly retracted their current VATable position, everything else is just hearsay and you would be wise not to base your financial assumptions around it.