Zipvit Ltd (Appellant) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Respondent)
Case ID: 2018/0152
Case summary
Issue
Where a customer pays a supplier for what both parties mistakenly believe is a VAT-exempt supply, but turns out to be standard rated, can the customer claim a deduction of input tax from HMRC for the VAT element of the original payment?
Facts
Zipvit used postal services provided by Royal Mail. All parties believed that the services were exempt from VAT but the European Court of Justice subsequently decided they are not. Zipvit therefore claims a deduction for input tax in respect of the payments it made for these services, which it says as a matter of law included an element of VAT. Royal Mail has never paid the VAT to HMRC. Many cases stand behind Zipvit’s case, selected as a lead case, and the total amount of tax at stake is in excess of £1 billion.
Judgment date
01 Apr 2020
Neutral citation number
[2020] UKSC 15
Case ID
UKSC 2018/0152
Justices
Lord Hodge, Lady Black, Lord Briggs, Lord Sales, Lord Hamblen
Judgment details
| Watch Judgment summary | |
|---|---|
| 01 Apr 2020 | Judgment summary |
| Watch hearing | ||
|---|---|---|
| 29 Jan 2020 | Morning session | Afternoon session |
| 30 Jan 2020 | Morning session | Afternoon session |
Judgment details
Judgment date
11 May 2022
Neutral citation
[2022] UKSC 12
Judgment details
- Judgment (PDF)
- Press summary (HTML version)
- Judgment on The National Archives (HTML version)
- Judgment on BAILII (HTML version)
| Watch Judgment summary | |
|---|---|
| 11 May 2022 | Judgment summary |