Originally published in Tax Journal on 9 December 2016.
The Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in The Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v HMRC on 24 November 2016, finding largely in favour of the taxpayers. The method of computing double tax relief on EU sourced dividends for the period from 1973 to 1999 therefore remains as established by Henderson J. HMRC again raised its various ‘restitutionary’ defences as to why it should not have to repay the unlawful tax, but these were rejected. The court notably allowed the claimants’ cross-appeal regarding the date of discovery, extending the date from which the six-year limitation period began to run from 2001 to 12 December 2006 and bringing all claims in the GLO within time.
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