- A taxpayer who owns over 600 flats in London has challenged an assessment by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that retained flats were subject to VAT, rather than exempt.
- The taxpayer had treated the supply of the flats as exempt, but HMRC assessed that they were subject to VAT and demanded over £4.8m in unpaid VAT from February 2015 to January 2019.
- The taxpayer challenged the assessments on the grounds that they were unreasonable, unfair, and contravened EU law and human rights.
- The court dismissed the challenge, stating that substantive unfairness is not a ground for judicial review and that the making of the assessments was not unfair.
- The bulk of the judgment concerned legitimate expectation, which the court found was not breached.
- The court also found that arguments that HMRC breached EU law and human rights added nothing to the challenge under domestic law.
Source KPMG
