Customs faces challenge to three-year VAT ruling
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists launched a challenge to Customs & Excise’s three-year rule on VAT repayment claims last Tuesday. Customs is claiming that the VAT tribunal cannot force it to pay claims and that the case is beyond the tribunal’s jurisdiction. Tax lawyer Clare Mainprice of Mainprice & Co. condemned Customs’ defence. She said: ‘It is totally dishonourable and an argument so specious that if a member of the public used it, they would be charged with fraud.’
