Businesses to claim back under-recovered VAT

News Article - 24 July 2006
Category:

The Court of Appeal has cleared the way for firms to claim back under-recovered VAT.

Three appeal judges overturned a previous ruling by the High Court against Conde Nast in June, which ruled that the magazine publisher could not claim back VAT on staff entertainment going as far back as 1972.

The company's lawyers had argued that the decision, which upheld legislation introduced in 1997 to cap retrospective repayments at three years, was based on a defective law which included no scope for a "transitional phase" to bring claims which may have otherwise been brought before the cut-off.

All appeal judges agreed, paving the way for other firms to make retrospective claims on VAT which had been failed to file before 1997.

"This case potentially affects all businesses that might have valid claims for under-recovered input VAT," said Tony McClenaghan of Deloitte.

"Any company which may benefit from this case should consider submitting a claim to HM Revenue & Customs straight away. Subject to petitioning the House of Lords for an appeal, the government will now be forced to remedy the defective law, allowing businesses which could have made claims for input VAT under the old law but were unable to because of the three year cap, now to do so with HMRC."

Article keywords:

Bookmark / share this article

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

---

More industry news

• Think tank warns UK may have already slipped back into recession
• Growing demand for HR staff in technology and international sectors
• Boosting business growth a ‘priority’ to avoid Eurozone slowdown
• HMRC launches alternative disputes pilot scheme this week
• December employment statistics disregard gloomy recruitment predictions
• Eurozone manufacturing PMI shows modest improvement
• UK scores highly for economic governance by ratings agency
• Government launches two-year project focusing on manufacturing sector
• Burden of regulation on UK businesses ‘too high’

Back to news home page »