Edinburgh Tribunal 4 September 1986. The question at issue was whether tax charged by a firm of chartered surveyors could be deducted as input tax by the appellant firm of solicitors. In 1973, the appellants took a lease of the third and fourth floors of a building in Glasgow. They set up a company to hold the lease of their premises, and to grant sub-leases for those parts of the building not immediately required. In 1982 when the appellants` firm expanded, a lease was granted to the nominee company on behalf of the appellants, for the fifth and sixth floors. Sub-leases were granted by the company for parts of the fifth floor not immediately required. The firm of consulting surveyors, Lambert Smith and Partners , carried out negotiations for acceptance of the further lease, and grants of the sub-leases for the fifth floor. Invoices for their services were sent by the surveyors to the appellant solicitors, who paid their accounts including the tax charged for their services totalling