Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v HMRC

In Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v HMRC [2021] UKSC 31 (23 July 2021) the Supreme Court considered a number of issues arising in the long-running litigation concerning the compatibility of the UK’s pre-April 1999 dividend tax regime with EU law.

The first issue concerned the quantification of the claim for restitution representing the time value of advance corporation tax (ACT) unlawfully charged which had been subsequently utilised against lawfully charged mainstream corporation tax. In effect for such ACT there was a premature payment of tax lawfully due. At an earlier stage of the litigation HMRC had accepted that the restitution should consist of compound interest but following the decision in Prudential Assurance Co Ltd v HMRC [2018] UKSC 39 HMRC had sought and been granted permission to withdraw its concession on this point....