British taxman persists in Sportech VAT issue

The British taxman is set to continue the long-running legal fight over VAT with gambling group Sportech, which reported in a statement Monday that Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is to take the issue to the Supreme Court after being unanimously refused the right to appeal by UK Court of Appeal.

HMRC will ask the Supreme Court to give it the right to appeal in the case, which involves GBP 97 million in VAT.

“Sportech will file its Notice of Objection to such application by next Monday, and has been advised that it should expect to hear by the Autumn whether HMRC has been granted the right to appeal to the Supreme Court,” the gambling group said in its statement Monday.

The VAT claim, which was first submitted in 2009, was heard by the First-tier Tribunal’s Tax Chamber (“FTT”) in October 2012. In March 2013, it was announced that the FTT had found in Sportech’s favour.

Following the FTT’s rejection of HMRC’s subsequent application for leave to appeal to the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (“UT”), HMRC then applied directly to the UT which granted such permission.

The claim was heard by the UT in April and May of 2014 and it was announced in September that the UT had ruled in HMRC’s favour.

In January 2015, Sportech announced that it had been granted the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The hearing took place on 8 April 2016, following which on 4 May 2016 the Court of Appeal judges found unanimously in favour of Sportech.

On 13 May 2016, HMRC sought permission from the Court of Appeal to appeal to the Supreme Court, which was refused.