Reviewing Upper Tribunal decision in Airtours

Like fashion certain legal principles fall in and out of favour. Third-party consideration is an issue which is very much in vogue at the moment not least in cases such as LMUK and Baxi [2010] STC 2651. The fallout from the ECJ’s judgments in those cases is still being evaluated including the potential consequences for the principle of recovery enunciated by the House of Lords (as it then was) in Redrow [1999] STC 161. Such issues no doubt will need to be addressed when those cases are relisted before the Supreme Court. It is therefore unsurprising that the Upper Tribunal resisted the temptation to stray into that debate in the recent decision in Airtours [2010] UKUT 404 (TCC). This case is interesting because it questions the level of benefit a business must receive before it will be entitled to recover VAT according to Redrow principles...