The meaning of ‘agent’

An insurance agent or broker is exempt from having to pay value added tax on the provision of its services. In Insurancewide.com Services Ltd v Revenue & Customs Commissioners 15 October 2007, a VAT Tribunal has decided that the operator of a website which provided price comparisons between different policies was neither an agent of the insurers or a broker of the assured, by reason of its passive role in the process.