From The BBC:
Thousands of companies made claims from the tax authority totalling £8.5bn for refunds of overpaid VAT, figures show.So far, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has repaid £1.5bn and £4.8bn has been set aside for repayments. About 60% of claims – which came as a result of a long legal battle which the government lost – have not qualified for refunds, the HMRC has revealed. Some 13,000 claims were made for backdated overpaid VAT before a HMRC deadline at the end of March. ‘Fleming’ casesThe figures refer to an episode that began when, in 1996, the government said that the tax authority would only refund overpayments of VAT backdated for up to three years. Previously, this had been six years.
However, the three-year cap was thrown out following a legal battle that went to European judges and ended at the House of Lords. In the light of the decision, the Lords gave companies until the end of March 2009 to make any additional backdated claims – which became known as Fleming cl…
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