CA Decision: VAT Recovery Denied on Share Sale Costs – Hotel La Tour Ltd Case

• Court of Appeal rules that VAT on share sales cannot be recovered if costs are directly linked to the sale
• Hotel La Tour Ltd sought to recover £77,000 of VAT on professional fees related to sale of subsidiary
• HMRC refused recovery of VAT, considering it to be linked to a VAT exempt sale of shares
• First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal initially allowed VAT recovery, but CA overturned rulings
• CA decided that VAT was irrecoverable as it was directly linked to the exempt sale of shares in the subsidiary

Source: trowers.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.

---

---