VAT diktat poised for High Court challenge
A High Court writ due to be lodged next week will provide the first legal test to Customs & Excise’s three-year limit on VAT claims.
Leading tax lawyer Clare Mainprice is finalising the writ’s details, which will claim up to z450,000 in overpaid VAT. Mainprice, who is confident of victory, told Accountancy Age she has five other writs in the pipeline.
She said: ‘If the writs are heard within the next few weeks, Customs would not have a legal basis to fight on. The limit is just a ministerial statement while the law remains. It is a crown prerogative to tax and is contrary to the 1689 Bill of Rights.’
The three-year limit introduced on 18 July is due to be enshrined in law in November’s Budget. Under the new diktat, businesses can only claw back wrongly-paid VAT for three years, while Customs can claim underpayments stretching back six years. Mainprice said if the limit was made law before the writs were heard, it would be challenged by a judicial review.
In the past decade, the professional services industry has transformed significantly. Digital disruptions, increased competition, and changing market ...
View resourceIn recent months, professional services firms are facing more pressure than ever to deliver value to clients. Often, clients look at the firms own inf...
View resourceIn a world of instant results and automated workloads, the potential for AP to drive insights and transform results is enormous. But, if you’re still ...
View resourceThe first phase of Making Tax Digital (MTD) saw the requirement for the digital submission of the VAT Return using compliant software. That’s now behi...
View resourceHMRC sees the profit or loss made on buying and selling of exchange tokens as within the charge to Capital Gains Tax (CGT). Read More...
View articleThe recent IR35 case involving former Liverpool footballer and Sky Sports presenter, Phil Thompson, has drawn attention to the complexities and implic...
View articleFrom January 1, 2024, HMRC will implement new tax rules affecting individuals who sell items on platforms like Etsy, Depop, and Vinted. The new regula...
View articleHMRC reveal a small majority of people are soldiering a significant proportion of income and capital gains tax, following FOI request. Data has reigni...
View articleSteven Pinhey, technical officer at the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), considers how the rules on deductible expenses work in a social med...
View articleATT technical officer, David Wright, considers the implications of HMRC’s decision to remove employees with income between £100,000 and £150,000 from ...
View articleThis was the fourth largest borrowing year since records began in 1993 Read More...
View articleATT technical officer, David Wright, provides an overview of the welcome relaxation to CGT provisions for separating couples looking to transfer asset...
View article