Jackpot pays out?
For the past six years, HMRC have been resisting claims that there was a problem with the UK’s laws that charged VAT on some gaming machines but exempted others. If the machines were so similar that the punter wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, the argument went, then they should all be treated the same. Owners and operators of machines put in huge claims for repayment of VAT they had accounted for in the past.
Now the European Court of Justice has confirmed that the taxpayers have won, in principle. Rank, who took the leading case, have secured a big windfall. HMRC are still clutching at some of the straws in the ECJ judgment, and may not pay out all the claims they have – they may ask for more details of the machines to find out which exempt ones they are supposed to be identical to. So the claimants who jumped on Rank’s bandwagon may have to wait a little longer.
There’s probably a bookie offering odds on the taxpayers winning, though...
