J & B Hopkins v HMRC

In J & B Hopkins v HMRC [2018] UKUT 382 (23 November 2018) the UT found that J&B could not recover VAT it had mistakenly not charged from HMRC.

HMRC assessed J&B at the standard rate on supplies made by J&B to Rok Building Ltd which had mistakenly been treated as zero-rated. Rok had correctly zero-rated its onward supplies to its customer a charity. As Rok’s supplies to the charity were zero-rated Rok should have been able to recover any VAT charged to it by J&B. The contract between J&B and Rok provided that the contract sum was exclusive of VAT but J&B did not issue Rok with a new invoice including the VAT when the mistake was discovered as Rok had gone into liquidation. J&B contended that the assessments were contrary to EU law because HMRC would be unjustly enriched by the amount of VAT...