VAT, Duties and Indirect Tax Law

Monckton Chambers can lay claim to having the largest team of indirect tax law specialists at the Bar, with an unrivalled breadth of experience.  Chambers routinely acts for both the taxpayer and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and one of our greatest strengths is our ability to put together the right teams for the right cases.

Members combine specialist knowledge of Value Added Tax (VAT) and other indirect taxes with extensive expertise in EU, human rights and public law, which have for many years formed the bedrock of our reputation for excellence.

VAT

Members of Monckton Chambers have represented taxpayers and HMRC in the VAT & Duties Tribunal, High Court, Court of Appeal, House of Lords and the European Court of Justice in dozens of leading cases.  Members also have experience of judicial review applications, for which Chambers' acknowledged expertise in both indirection taxation and public law is invaluable.

Please click on the links below for details of some of the many landmark VAT cases in which members of Chambers have acted:

Specific areas of expertise include:

Areas

  • Assessments and penalties
  • Exemptions and zero-rating
  • Input tax and partial exemption
  • Multiple/single supplies
  • Place of supply
  • Remedies, compound interest
  • Special schemes
  • Abusive practices
  • VAT-related judicial review
  • Vouchers, customer loyalty schemes
  • MTIC fraud

Sectors

  • Charities
  • Construction
  • Education
  • Financial services and insurance
  • Food and catering
  • Health and welfare
  • Transport
  • Local authorities and public bodies
  • Retail
  • Telecommunications and e-commerce
  • Land and property

Indirect Taxes

Members have acted in a wide range of other indirect tax cases such as:

  • Customs duties and related matters such as tariff classification, preferential customs treatments, inward/outward processing, community transit, tariff quota and all other customs procedures
  • Anti-dumping duty
  • Excise duties on alcoholic liquor, tobacco, hydrocarbon oil and related matters such as production, processing, holding, movement of excise goods; approval and registration of traders, warehousekeepers and tax warehouses
  • Insurance premium tax
  • Landfill tax
  • Climate change levy
  • Aggregates levy
  • Betting levies and
  • Stamp duty

Awards

The Monckton Chambers VAT team won the award of "Best VAT Team" at the LexisNexis UK Tax Awards in May 2004. In 2005, Paul Lasok QC won "Tax Lawyer of the Year" in recognition of his involvement in numerous landmark cases.