Skatteforvaltningen (SKAT) v Solo Capital Partners LLP (in special administration) and others

In Skatteforvaltningen (SKAT) v Solo Capital Partners LLP (in special administration) and others [2023] UKSC 40 (8 November 2023) the Supreme Court (SC) held that the ‘revenue rule’ and the ‘sovereign authority rule’ did not prevent the Danish tax authority (SKAT) from seeking to recover money defrauded from it via the English courts.

This SC decision is part of wider litigation under which SKAT aims to recover ‘refunds’ of Danish dividend withholding tax made to persons who SKAT contends were not shareholders in Danish companies. SKAT’s argument is that since they were not shareholders they had not paid Danish withholding tax on Danish dividends and were consequently not entitled to the refunds they had obtained. Because many of the recipients of the ‘refunds’ are based in England SKAT started proceedings in the English courts to recover the sums.

The recipients of the ‘refunds’ argued that SKAT’s claims...