VAT group registration

We are used to seeing First-tier Tribunal decisions which contradict each other both having been heard before the other result was published and with different tribunal chairs unable to know what the other was thinking. A recent example was the decision in Cambridge University (TC02836) to the effect that VAT on investment management costs was an overhead of the business; this  was promptly put in doubt by the decision in TLLC (TC02857) to the effect that the costs related to specific non-business activities. In that example there were at least a few days between the decisions being issued.

Now we have two contradictory decisions – Standard Chartered (TC03450) and MG Rover (TC03461) – which were made by two First-tier Tribunal judges and issued on the same day. Unlike Cambridge and...