In BAT Industries plc and others v HMRC [2024] EWHC 195 (Ch) (5 February) the High Court was required to ascertain when a constructive discovery of the possibility of a challenge against HMRC occurred focusing on the professional and academic opinion of the now-established incompatibility between the UK and European tax regimes applicable to overseas dividends at the relevant time.
The claimants were members of the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation Order (FII GLO). Members of the FII GLO have successfully demonstrated that when certain tax was paid to HMRC it was paid on the basis of a mistaken understanding that the UK tax regime applicable to overseas dividends at the time was compatible with the provisions of various European treaties when in fact it was not. As a result members of the FII GLO are entitled to recover the amounts they paid under that...
.tmb-editorspic.jpg?sfvrsn=df04ab27_1)
