Philip Simpson QC, has enjoyed success in the recent case of Taylor Clark Leisure plc v HMRC [2016] CSIH 54.  The case concerned a claim for repayment of overpaid VAT.

The VAT was initially charged on transactions entered into by the representative member of a VAT group. The business was transferred to another company in the group. That company then left the group. A judgment by the European Court of Justice made it clear that the VAT was not due. The company that had left the group therefore submitted a claim to HMRC for repayment of the VAT. The representative member did not, having transferred all the relevant records to the company which had left.

The question was whether the representative member was entitled to receive the repayment. Mr Simpson, relying in particular on the European law concept of a ‘single taxable person’, persuaded the Inner House that the proper recipient of the repayment was indeed the representative member, as the representative of that single taxable person. The Inner House accordingly allowed Taylor Clark’s appeal.