Legislation

• Part III and Schedule 5 of the Finance Act 1996
• Section 42 and Schedule 12 of the Finance Act 2018
• EU Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC)
• Consultation on Reform of Landfill Tax in England and Northern Ireland (April 2025)
• Paris Agreement 2015
• s1 Climate Change Act 2008Renewed Agenda for European Union – United Kingdom cooperation common understanding (May 2025)
• Environment Act 2021
• The Environmental Targets (Residual Waste) (England) Regulations 2023, regulation 2

Cases

• Waste Recycling Group Ltd v HMRC [2008] EWCA Civ 849; [2009] STC 200
• Patersons of Greenoakhill Ltd v HMRC [2016] EWCA Civ 1250; [2017] 1 WLR 1210; [2017] STC 225
• Devon Waste Management Ltd v HMRC [2021] EWCA Civ 584; [2021] 4 WLR 89; [2021] STC 990

• Joshua Stevens | Pump Court Tax Chambers
• Zizhen Yang | Pump Court Tax Chambers

Thomas Chacko and Quinlan Windle discuss the options for tax breaks in relation to spending on R&D:

• outline of scheme and changes made in 2024
• what R&D means
• can you claim when R&D is contracted out
• practical points about how to deal with enquiries bearing in mind recent case law

1:25 outline of the scheme pre the Finance Act 2024 - basic deduction and 2 further possible schemes (relief for small and medium enterprises + R&D credit).

2:54 effect of Finance Act 2024

3:23 what is R&D? A common question as well as major issue in many of the cases.

8:03 the effect of HMRC now taking very robust stance on R&D tax credit claims and requiring cases to pass a very high threshold. Issues with highly technical areas eg software. Tax payers must be able to explain highly technical projects to HMRC/tribunal in a way that enables them to understand why the work merits the tax credit.

18:40 restrictions on qualifying expenditure in recent case law and following the Finance Act 2024.

37:09 practical problems in enquiries and litigation. Also the use of ADR.

Citations

Legislation and guidelines

Corporation Tax Act 2009

Finance Act 2024

BEIS Guidelines - latest update March 2023 (originally the DTI Guidelines)

HMRC Guidance - CIRD84250

HMRC CIRD161000

Case law

Hadee Engineering Co Ltd v Revenue & Customs [2020] UKFTT 497 (TC)

BE Studios v Smith & Williamson Ltd [2005] EWHC 1506

Flame Tree Publishing v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 349 (TC)

Get Onbord v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 617 (TCC)

Quinn (London) Ltd v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 437 (TC)

Collins Construction Ltd (TC09332) - 21 October 2024

Stage One Creative Services [2024] UKFTT 1059 (TC)

Rupert Baldry KC and Sadiya Choudhury KC examine how the customs and excise duty regime is operating post-Brexit. This includes a brief overview of the pre-Brexit regime, the main legislative changes since Brexit, the relationship between the old and new regimes, some recent cases and future developments in this area.

1:15 History of customs and excise duties

3:31 Tariffs - what are they? Why do we have them? Who pays them? Any restrictions on them?

6:45 Role of World Trade Organisation in harmonising tariffs. Role of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and customs unions.

8:25 Framework of customs law pre Brexit - a customs union in which the EU negotiated FTAs and there was no need for a domestic UK customs code except in relation to remedies and enforcement.

11:23 Excise duty regime pre Brexit.

12:55 Pre Brexit, dualistic interpretation to legislation ie look at Act then underlying directive it sought to implement.

15:13 Legislative changes to customs post Brexit principally (a) Taxation Cross-border Trade Act 2018 (TCTA) and (b) new FTAs.

16:21 TCTA brings in a new customs duty known as import duty. How this operates is set out in O'Neill Wet Suits. The TCTA recognises and allows for FTAs to be agreed.

20:07 3 types of FTA now (a) Continuity Agreements (b) new FTAs (c) Trade & Cooperation Agreement 2020 with EU.

22:40 Status of FTAs in UK law. Interaction of article 5 TCTA and s29 European Union Future Relations Act 2020 + Lipton v BA City Flyer.

29:39 Current regime for customs - FTAs but no customs unions. If there is no FTA/relief/tariff suspension (eg Developing Countries Trading Scheme) then UK global tariff applies.

31:17 Practical consequences of new customs regime for all parts of UK other than Northern Ireland. Less drastic consequences for excise duties.

32:44 Explanation of the rules of origin.

35:20 The relationship between the new domestic customs regime and EU law. How are accrued EU law rights treated? And what of events after 31.12.20? What is the status of previous case law?

49:43 Excise duty - legislative interpretation now has a carve out like VAT (s28 Finance Act 2024) and will refer back to the old law. How are the courts going to view previous case law e.g. in relation to “holding” goods?

55:07 How do the new rules tie in with the appeal framework? Very few changes other than that the courts no longer have to apply EU principles. Changes from the previous rules are causing complications eg the interaction of appeals and remission applications.

1:01:42 New regime is made up of a very short Act and a lot of secondary legislation which allows HMRC to publish notices. This makes it difficult to see an overarching policy or find the policy that applies to a particular case.

1:03:44 Discussion of some recent cases.

1:06:36 What of the future? New case law will take time to build up, there are developments in the EU which will affect the UK and the carbon cross-border adjustment mechanism is to be introduced in 2027.

Citations and legislation

UK legislation

• Section 2, European Communities Act 1972
• Customs and Excise Management Act 1979
• Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979
• Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979
• Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979
• Chapter II, Finance Act 1994
• The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and REDS) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/3135)
• The Excise Goods (Holding, Movement and Duty Point) Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/593)
• Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018
• European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
• Sections 52 and...