No more questions

The taxpayers appealed to the Court of Appeal from a decision of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) that they were not entitled to recover compound interest on VAT.

HMRC applied for a stay of the appeals until 56 days after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had delivered its judgment on a reference made to it in November 2010 in Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC.

The issues in Wilkins concerned VAT overpayments made to HMRC in respect of manufacturers' bonuses and the sale of demonstrator vehicles.

Littlewoods related to overpaid VAT in connection with catalogue-based home-shopping businesses.

The taxpayer companies said the questions referred to the ECJ in Littlewoods would not allow their appeals to be determined properly.

Furthermore they were entitled to have their own reference to the ECJ on the grounds they had...