Marc Glover acts for tax payers in £2M revenue claim

(1) Harkness (2) DDS Supplies v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 272, [2019] 4 WLUK 440

Marc Glover successfully represented the appellants in a tax tribunal claim concerning £2.083M of potential lost revenue.  The first appellant is a well-known European distributor for a leading soft drink brand. 

Marc’s clients had handled 113 loads of wine which they had sold to a leading supermarket chain, on which HMRC asserted excise duties had not been paid.  The clients received penalty assessments totalling over £800,000.  Marc identified a novel preliminary legal issue concerning the interpretation of paragraph 16 of Schedule 42 of the Finance Act 2008 and whether the penalties were raised out of time.

The appeal was stayed behind the Upper Tribunal decision in General Transport SpA [2019] UKUT 4 (“GT”), in which the timing ground was argued unsuccessfully by the tax payer.  Notwithstanding the decision in GT, Marc’s client’s continued with their appeal and were able to circumvent the negative elements of the decision in GT.

In this case Marc was able to draw on his experience in cases concerning statutory interpretation (see for example the Supreme Court cases of Eastenders and Barnes) as well as his expertise in Revenue Law, to present a fresh approach to his clients’ benefit.  Marc’s ability to identify novel points was also at the fore in Belcher v HMRC [2017] UKFTT 427; [2017] STI 1215, where Marc successfully relied upon European directives to avoid a large VAT assessment that would have bankrupted his clients. 

Chambers UK notes that Marc’s “strengths come from his underlying technical mastery of the legal framework”, and Legal 500 identify that Marc is “Very strong, knowledgeable and engaging in his areas.”

Marc was instructed by Smith & Williamson and then Cubism Law.

A copy of the decision can be found at Lawtel & Westlaw and on the Tribunal’s website.