Court of Appeal decision in Lloyds Banking Group – VAT groups

The Court of Appeal has handed down the latest judgment in the long-running “VAT grouping” dispute where the courts must grapple with the proper application of the EU San Giorgio right to recover overpaid tax in the context of VAT groups.  The Court has ruled that the right to recover VAT overpaid by a member of a VAT group remains always with the representative member of the group even if the composition of the group changes and the company that originally generated the overpaid VAT has left the group.  The decision deals with separate appeals brought by Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, MG Rover, BMW and Gala: see Lloyds Banking Group Plc & Ors v Revenue And Customs & Anor [2019] EWCA Civ 485 (21 March 2019).  The judgement is available at the following link:

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2019/485.html.

Jonathan Peacock QC and Michael Ripley acted for Gala.

It is not yet know whether there will be a further appeal to the Supreme Court.