Mars barred

MIKE TRUMAN looks at the High Court judgment in Small (HMIT) v Mars UK Ltd and asks what it means for the Distillers case.

WE REPORTED ON the joined appeals of Mars and William Grant Distillers in 'Whisky Galore' (Taxation 2 September 2004 page 567). Because Mars is an English case and Distillers a Scottish one the appeals have now been separated in the High Court and the Court of Session respectively. The judgments will inevitably be appealed because of the amounts involved and the Special Commissioners gave a Court of Appeal 'leapfrog' certificate so the cases can be rejoined in the House of Lords. Reported here however is the High Court's hearing of the Mars case alone.

Background

Until the year ended 31 December 1996 Mars prepared its tax computations in an uncontroversial way. The full amount of depreciation shown...