Tax cases

Back off!

The opinion of the advocate general of the European Court of Justice has been released in respect of the joined cases of Bond House Systems Ltd Optigen Limited and Fulcrum Electronics Ltd (in Liquidation) which were referred to the European Court to decide on whether Customs should allow grey market dealers unwittingly caught up in a VAT carousel fraud to claim back VAT on purchases of computer chips and mobile phones being traded in Europe.
Customs took action in summer 2002 to prevent the loss of billions of pounds of VAT caused by organised crime gangs taking advantage of the Single Market European VAT system. A fraudulent company would import goods such as computer chips zero rated from a company in another member state charge VAT when it sold them on to another UK company but then fail to pay over the VAT to Customs....