VAT grouping: who is entitled to claim?

Two conflicting tribunal decisions were released in 2014 relating to cases where the real world supplier (RWS) is no longer part of the VAT group: in these circumstances, is it the RWS or the VAT group representative member which is entitled to make a claim for historically overpaid VAT? The Upper Tribunal has now ruled that the decision in the Standard Chartered case should be upheld; namely, the right to recover historically overpaid VAT accrues to the representative member of the VAT group at the time the VAT was overpaid. This gives some much needed certainty (for the time being at least) to businesses and advisers alike.