European Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell (London)
Andrew Thomson is European Counsel in Sullivan & Cromwell’s London office advising on general U.K. corporate tax matters, in particular the tax aspects of M&A, redomiciliation, capital markets, banking and project finance transactions, as well as the application of European Union state aid rules in the tax sphere.
Royaume-Uni - VAT grouping - The First-tier Tribunal considered three questions on HMRC's refusal to allow the UK branch of a foreign company to join a UK VAT group. HMRC's grounds were, first, that the company did not have a fixed establishment in the UK; and, second, that HMRC could deny the application in order to protect the revenu.
Barclays Service Corp and another company v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2024] UKFTT 00785 (TC), 29 August 2024
Royaume-Uni - Tax treaty exemption - Tax avoidance main purpose - The Upper Tribunal has rejected an appeal from HM Revenue and Customs, holding that the First-tier Tribunal was entitled to find that taking advantage of the interest article in the Ireland/UK double tax treaty was not a main purpose of the parties to the sale of a debt, so the lender should not be denied treaty relief from withholding.
Burlington Loan Management DAC v HMRC [2024] UKUT 00152 (TCC), 31 May 2024
Royaume-Uni - Transfer pricing - Tax advantage main purpose and apportionment - The Court of Appeal has held that the transfer pricing rules do not require companies to include unnecessary covenants in intra-group loans, overturning an Upper Tribunal decision on this point; it agreed with the UT, however, that tax deductions for the interest on the loans in question should be disallowed under the unallowable purposes rule.
BlackRock Holdco 5, LLC v HMRC [2024] EWCA Civ 330, 11 avr. 2024
Royaume-Uni - Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism - The UK government plans to introduce a carbon border adjustment mechanism.
HMRC / DESNZ, Addressing carbon leakage risk to support decarbonisation: Summary of consultation responses and government response, 18 December 2023
Royaume-Uni - Deductions for penal payments - Upper Tribunal denies deductions for compensatory payments and donations made pursuant to a settlement agreement with regulatory authority.
ScottishPower (SCPL) Ltd and others v HMRC [2023] UKUT 218 (TCC), 5 September 2023
Royaume-Uni - Tax avoidance - HMRC has published draft legislation imposing new penalties on promoters of tax avoidance.
HMRC, Tougher consequences for promoters of tax avoidance: closed consultation, 27 April to 22 June 2023. - Summary of responses and draft legislation, 18 July 2023
Royaume-Uni - EU law - The Court of Appeal has held that a limitation on the surrender of losses within a group that applied only to permanent establishments of non-UK-resident companies is compatible with the EU principle of freedom of establishment.
VolkerRail Plant Ltd and others v HMRC [2023] EWCA Civ 210, 1 March 2023
Royaume-Uni - Loan relationships - Unallowable purpose of intragroup loans - The Upper Tribunal has upheld a decision of the First-tier Tribunal in holding that various intra-group loans in the Kwik-Fit group had an unallowable purpose and limiting the amount of interest denied on pre-existing loans to the amount by which the interest rate was increased.
Kwik-Fit Group Ltd and others v HMRC [2022] UKUT 314 (TCC), 25 November 2022
Royaume-Uni - HMRC opposition to restructuring plan - The High Court sanctioned the restructuring plan of Houst Ltd, despite the opposition from HMRC as one of the major creditors.
Re Houst Ltd [2022] EWHC 1941 (Ch), 22 juill. 2022
Royaume-Uni - Pillar 2 - The government has published a summary of responses received to its consultation on implementing Pillar 2 in the UK and draft legislation for a domestic minimum top-up tax.
HMT/HMRC, OECD Pillar 2: Consultation on implementation, 11 January 2022
Royaume-Uni - VAT grouping - The Upper Tribunal decided four preliminary issues in a case on HMRC's removal of five subsidiaries of HSBC from its VAT group on the grounds that they were not entitled to grouping and in any case HMRC could exercise its discretion to remove them in order to protect the revenue..
HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Guangdong) Ltd & Others v Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs [2022] UKUT 00041 (TCC), 15 févr. 2022
Royaume-Uni - Disallowance of interest deductions - Transfer pricing - Tax advantage main purpose and apportionment - The First-tier Tribunal allowed a taxpayer's appeal against the disallowance of interest deductions, although accepting that the transaction would have been different if entered into with an independent third party and finding that it had a main purpose of obtaining a tax advantage: the transfer pricing rules did not apply and the interest deductions should not be attributed to the tax purpose.
BlackRock Holdco 5 LLC v Commissioners for HM Revenue & Customs [2020] UKFTT 443 (TC), 3 November 2020
