Opus Labour Services VAT Appeal on Kittel Denial Dismissed

• The Upper Tribunal dismissed Opus Labour Services Ltd and Jason Giller’s appeal against HMRC’s denial of VAT input tax recovery and related penalties/PLNs.
• HMRC had refused input tax credits on the basis that the payroll transactions were linked to fraudulent VAT avoidance and that Opus knew or should have known this.
• The First-tier Tribunal had already rejected the appellants’ case; the Upper Tribunal found no error in the FTT’s application of the Kittel constructive knowledge test.
• The Tribunal also rejected arguments that the FTT gave insufficient reasons or made fact findings that could be challenged under Edwards v Bairstow.
• Opus had operated as a recruitment company in the construction/asbestos-removal sector and used payroll companies alleged by HMRC to be defaulting suppliers or buffers in a fraudulent supply chain.

Source: bailii.org

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.

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