In Brayfal Ltd v HMRC (No 4) (Upper Tribunal – 9 March) a company (B) reclaimed substantial amounts of input tax in relation to transactions in mobile telephones. HMRC rejected the claim on the grounds that the transactions formed part of a ‘missing trader intra-Community fraud.’
B appealed contending that it was not aware that the transactions were fraudulent. The VAT Tribunal accepted B’s evidence and allowed the appeal (with the exception of two invoices where B had failed to pay the VAT charged). HMRC appealed to the Ch D which directed that the case should be remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for rehearing.
This Tribunal heard further argument and confirmed the VAT Tribunal decision (by a 2-1 majority Judge Demack dissenting).
The Upper Tribunal upheld the majority decision as one of fact. (The Upper Tribunal decision was not publicly released until several days...
