VDT VAT – MTIC fraud – input tax – Preliminary hearing – Whether the Tribunal has jurisdiction to consider the question of whether HMRC have unlawfully discriminated against the Appellant in subjecting its claim for repayment of input tax to ‘extended verification’ and refusing it, as opposed to considering the question of the amount of input tax of which the Appellant is entitled to repayment – held, it has not such jurisdiction – Whether any question of Community law is raised by the Appellant’s discrimination argument, which should be referred to the ECJ – the Tribunal will not make a reference at this preliminary stage – the Tribunal comments that it might consider it necessary to make a reference after the substantive hearing of the appeal if it found on the facts that the Appellant had objective knowledge of the fraud and that the requirement for equal treatment for domestic transactions and intra-Community transactions had been breached – in that case a reference might be necessary to determine whether such breach was justified, and, if it was not, whether that fact affected the Tribunal’s duty to apply the law as stated in Axel Kittel at para [61] according to its terms – Findings of fact made in relation to HMRC’s policy in combating MTIC fraud.
Citations:
[2009] UKVAT V20931
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
VAT
Updated: 07 July 2022; Ref: scu.301711