Barclays Services VAT Grouping Appeal Dismissed by Upper Tribunal

• The Upper Tribunal upheld HMRC’s refusal to let Barclays Services Corporation (a US company) join a UK VAT group.
• It held that the UK’s “whole entity” VAT grouping approach remains valid, so joining via a UK branch affects the whole legal entity, not just the branch.
• The Tribunal agreed BSC did not have a fixed establishment in the UK because it lacked sufficient control over UK human and technical resources.
• It also said HMRC could reasonably have refused grouping on “protection of the revenue” grounds, even if a fixed establishment existed.
• Barclays’ appeal was dismissed.

Source: taxscape.deloitte.com

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

---

---