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It seems to have taken The Law Society 4 months to decide to form a committee to discuss this and three months further on from that there has been nothing useful coming form them. If firms historically used Regulated (Personal) Searches then VAT will have been applied by the provider and thus the tax man will have had his money. If treated as a disbursement then the firm is unlikely to have reclaimed the VAT, however, there will be no liability on the firm in terms of anything owed to HMRC. Simplest thing to do in my view given that part of a council search (CON29 vatable + LLC1 non vatable) is to just order the Regulated Local Search from a reputable supplier, put it as part of your legal fees and not a disbursement and reclaim the VAT in the normal manner. The Bold Legal group issued members with some very useful guidance from VAT/accountancy specialists. Maybe worth firms who are not members subscribing to the group and some meaningful support on this issue. I don't pretend to be an expert on tax issues, but this just seems common sense to me.