Revenue and Customs v Marks and Spencer Plc: SC 19 Feb 2014

For the purposes of corporation tax, MandS claimed group relief in respect of losses sustained by two of their subsidiaries, resident in Germany and in Belgium. Lord Hope observed that the claims were originally made and refused by HMRC over ten years before and raised questions about the availability of cross-border group relief and the method of quantifying such relief as was available which, despite having been the subject of nine separate hearings since the case was first considered in December 2002, had still not yet been resolved. This was the tenth such hearing. As to the losses in respect of which relief is sought, the earliest losses relied upon extend back to 1997 in the case of MSD and back to 1998 in the case of MSB.
Held: The company had been entitled to make multiple claims for cross-border group Corporation Tax relief in relation to the same loss incurred in the appropriate accounting periods by its European subsidiary which had gone into liquidation and then, at a later point, to withdraw earlier claims in respect of the same surrendered loss which proved not to meet the subsequent judicially determined test. The remaining condition was that such claims should not be statute-barred.

Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Mance, Lord Clarke, Lord Reed, Lord Carnwath
[2014] UKSC 11, [2014] 2 All ER 331, [2014] 1 WLR 711, [2014] STC 819, [2014] BTC 7, [2014] STI 682, [2014] WLR(D) 90
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC summary, SC, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
At ECJMarks and Spencer v David Halsey (Inspector of Taxes) ECJ 13-Dec-2005
ECJ Articles 43 EC and 48 EC – Corporation tax – Groups of companies – Tax relief – Profits of parent companies – Deduction of losses incurred by a resident subsidiary- Allowed – Deduction of losses incurred in . .
At CAHM Revenue and Customs v Marks and Spencer Plc CA 14-Oct-2011
The taxpayers claimed relief for losses incurred within their European subsidiaries. The claim having been referred to the ECJ, Moses LJ summarised the issues outstanding: ‘(i) Is the test that the ECJ established to identify those circumstances in . .
See AlsoRevenue and Customs v Marks and Spencer Plc SC 22-May-2013
The company wished to assign losses in its European subsidiaries against its profits. Since the losses were first claimed, the subsidiaries had gone into insolvent liquidation.
Held: Lord Hope said: ‘I would answer the first issue by rejecting . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Corporation Tax, European

Leading Case

Updated: 10 January 2022; Ref: scu.521992