VAT briefing for May 2017

ITC: restitutionary claims against HMRC

In Investment Trust Companies (in liquidation) v HMRC [2017] UKSC 29 (reported in Tax Journal 21 April 2017) the Supreme Court (SC) overturning the Court of Appeal has held that customers do not have a direct restitutionary remedy against HMRC for mistakenly paid VAT.

The case concerned investment trust companies (ITCs) that had incurred VAT on the supply of services from investment managers (the ‘managers’). The managers accounted for this VAT to HMRC after deducting attributable input tax.

It was subsequently determined that these supplies were exempt from VAT under EU law. The managers claimed repayment of the overpaid VAT from HMRC and reimbursed the ITCs these amounts. However under VATA 1994 s 80 these repayments were limited to amounts:

i. actually paid...