FTT Strikes Out Reemtsma VAT Appeal for Lack of Jurisdiction

• The First-tier Tribunal struck out Education Training Collective’s appeal because it had no jurisdiction to hear a purchaser’s claim for reimbursement of VAT charged in error and paid directly to HMRC.
• The case involved VAT wrongly charged by a supplier on a supply that should have been zero-rated; recovery from the supplier was unlikely because the supplier was in administration.
• The Tribunal held that s.80 VATA 1984 allows repayment claims by the supplier, not by the customer/purchaser, so the customer’s request to HMRC did not fall within the statutory appeal right under s.83(1)(t) VATA.
• The appellant argued that FA 2024 s.28(5) preserved EU-law interpretive principles, including Marleasing and Reemtsma, to support a direct claim against HMRC where supplier recovery is impossible or excessively difficult.
• HMRC argued, and the Tribunal accepted for jurisdictional purposes, that post-Brexit EU law cannot create a standalone cause of action, and the appeal was therefore struck out.

Source: claritaxnews.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.

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