D&D Ltd and another v HMRC

In D & D Ltd and another v HMRC [2016] EWCA Civ 142 (15 March 2016) the Court of Appeal found that HMRC had been right to deny a repayment of VAT on the ground that the trader ought to have known that its purchases were connected with MTIC fraud.

The FTT had found that HMRC had correctly decided that the taxpayers had forfeited any right to the repayment of VAT amounting to over £4 million paid on the purchase of razor blades as the only reasonable explanation which the taxpayers could have drawn from their prior knowledge and the circumstances in which they had been offered the chance to buy the blades was that the transactions were connected with a fraud by a previous buyer. The UT had however found in favour of the taxpayers. The issue was therefore whether the taxpayers ought to have known...