In the context of value added tax (www.practicallaw.com/A37171) (VAT), a taxable person who makes taxable supplies (www.practicallaw.com/A37063) and exempt supplies (www.practicallaw.com/A36054) will be able to recover input tax (www.practicallaw.com/A36297) only to the extent that the input tax is attributable to his taxable supplies. Accordingly, such a taxable person is partially exempt from VAT as he is able to recover only part of the input tax that he incurs.
For further information, see Practice note, Value added tax: Partial exemption (www.practicallaw.com/2-107-3725).