R oao Ingenious Construction Ltd v HMRC

In R oao Ingenious Construction Ltd v HMRC [2020] EWHC 2255 (Admin) (18 August 2020) the High Court refused the taxpayer’s application for interim relief and permission to apply for judicial review with respect to a decision of HMRC to compulsorily deregister the taxpayer. The deregistration was made on the basis that the taxpayer’s VAT registration was ‘being used to facilitate VAT fraud’.  The taxpayer’s application for interim relief was effectively an application to restore its registration temporarily until the substantive appeal (for which expedition had been sought and granted) could be heard. 

The taxpayer argued that HMRC had no explicit powers to deregister a trader except where UK legislation specifically provided; that legislation (VATA 1994 Sch 1 para 13) only provided for deregistration where a person ceased to be liable or entitled to be registered. HMRC accepted this point but it argued that the power to deregister...