Summary 

The appellant applied for permission to bring a late appeal against an assessment for £103,009 of VAT, plus interest. The dispute arose in the context of the long-running Rank Group litigation concerning the VAT treatment of gaming machines. This litigation included a judgment of the Supreme Court, which was released in July 2015 (HMRC v Rank Group plc [2015] UKSC 48). 

Background 

The appellant first made a claim for overpaid VAT in 2006. Reflecting the different stages of the Rank Group litigation, HMRC first refused the claim, then (in 2013) paid the amount claimed. At the same time as making this payment, HMRC issued a ‘protective assessment’ that was intended to enable them to recover that sum if the Rank Group litigation went in HMRC's favour in the higher courts. 

The appellant repaid the disputed VAT to HMRC in 2014, following the Court of Appeal'