No change–Skandia and the VAT grouping rules

Tax analysis: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held in Skandia that services provided by a US company headquarters to its Swedish branch were supplies for VAT purposes. The judgment concerned the Swedish VAT grouping rules and the result is a VAT fiction with real financial consequences, according to Tarlochan Lall, a tax lawyer and barrister at Monckton Chambers, and difficult to decode. Here, he considers whether there is inconsistency in HMRC’s conclusion that, although no change is required in UK law, Skandia will have an impact on certain businesses.

Please click to view the full Skandia and the VAT grouping rules article.

This article was first published on Lexis®PSL Tax on 9 April 2015.

 

Viewpoint – Caveat Emptor!

In an article for Bloomberg BNA Viewpoint, Frank Mitchell examines the extent to which a purchaser of goods and services is required to investigate the bona fides of its supplier and its supplier’s suppliers.

Please click to download the full Caveat Emptor! article.

The Consequences of Unlawful State Aid

The European Commission is hunting down unlawful state aid in the tax field. George Peretz QC explores the consequences for taxpayers.

The European Commission’s recent announcements of state aid investigations into tax rulings by a number of member states (including Ireland’s treatment of Apple and Luxembourg’s treatment of Fiat) should have reminded tax lawyers that the EU’s state aid rules have important tax implications.

This article explores the consequences of the application of the state aid rules. But, for the benefit of those who would appreciate a reminder of the basic principles, it may be useful to recap briefly on when the state aid rules apply in the tax field.

Please click to view The consequences of unlawful state aid article.

This article was first published in the Tax Journal.

Random Effects of Scoring Price in a Tender Evaluation

One of the key features of public procurement law and practice is that the system is designed to produce predictable and transparent outcomes.  The expectation is that the stated tender evaluation system should generate an answer in a manner that is protected from inappropriate interference and should be seen as predictable by bidders.  It should also be possible for those wanting to contract to understand in advance how the choice of one evaluation model or another would affect the sort of offer that is likely to be accepted.  It is strange, therefore, that systems commonly applied should so often operate unpredictably.  It is also rather strange that this is the subject of so little comment given that the problems are quite well known.

In this post, Michael Bowsher QC considers two problems arising from the use of a common formula for evaluating price.

To view the full Random Effects of Scoring Price in a Tender Evaluation article for Practical Law.

This article was first published on the Practical Law Public Sector Blog.

Sir Jeremy Lever Lecture 2015 – The Principle of Mutual Recognition in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice

The fourth annual Sir Jeremy Lever lecture was held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford on Friday 30th January, to celebrate the career of Sir Jeremy Lever KCMG, QC, a pioneer of both the practice and academic study of European Law.

To view the background to lecture delivered by Judge Koen Lenaerts, Vice President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, please click here The Principle of Mutual Recognition in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice.

Tax Disputes

Some reports state that there has been a recent rise in litigation resulting from the increasing complexity of the tax system. Andrew Macnab spoke to Lawyer Monthly to discuss these complexities and the challenges that legal professionals face when dealing with taxation disputes.