Originally printed in International Tax Review, 16 September 2014
By Nicola Hine
On 2 September 2014, the Court of Appeal handed down its latest judgment (the third from the Court of Appeal) in the long running Franked Investment Income Group Litigation (“FII GLO”) case. This particular appeal dealt with an important point of principle: that taxpayers should be entitled to have finality in long running cases. If HMRC were allowed to re-open arguments which had been decided against them, it could increase the uncertainty of litigation and the protracted nature of tax disputes.
The Court of Appeal decided the UK tax authorities should not be allowed to change their defence in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation on the issue of liability as that aspect of the case has already been finalised. As a result, the appeal was dismissed.
This is a further success for the Claimants in this action and, hopefully, brings the case closer to reaching its conclusion.
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