VATSC10173 - Supply: Whether supplies are goods or services: Distinguishing between purchase and hire agreements: “Put and call” options

You may also encounter put and call options. Under these at the end of the period the lessee makes the final payment and takes ownership. If he wishes, he can then opt to sell the goods back to the supplier. The supplier is obliged to buy, albeit most likely at a price lower than the final instalment. Alternatively, the supplier may opt to call the goods back and the lessee is obliged to sell. This is likely to be for a sum equal to the final instalment. As title passes to the customer at the end of the original agreement, the put or call (where the original customer sells the goods back to the original supplier) is a separate supply of goods and does not alter the nature of the original agreement.