North Wiltshire District Council v HMRC

In North Wiltshire District Council v HMRC (TC00714 – 20 October) a district council had accounted for VAT on its receipts from car parks. It claimed a repayment on the basis that it should have treated these receipts as outside the scope of VAT. HMRC rejected the claim The council failed to appeal within the statutory time limit but subsequently applied for an extension of time in which to appeal against the decision. The First-Tier Tribunal granted the application observing that the council’s appeal appeared to have a strong chance of success applying the ECJ decision in HMRC v Isle of Wight Council (No 2) [2008] STC 2964. Although the council had been ‘seriously culpable’ in failing to appeal within the statutory time limit the appeal here was ‘additional to the appeals of other local authorities which raise the same general issue’. The fact...