Thirteen-year saga continues

Foreign dividend income

The taxpayer’s argument that the UK rules on the taxation of dividends paid by non-resident companies to companies resident in the UK were a breach of Art 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU had been upheld by the Court of Justice of the EU (Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v CIR (Case C-446/04) [2007] STC 326). As a result the taxpayer claimed the overpaid advance corporation tax.

HMRC appealed against the High Court decision in favour of the taxpayer.

The Court of Appeal described Mr Justice Henderson’s judgment in the High Court as ‘a masterpiece of exposition and reasoning’. Lord Justice Lewison said: ‘It contains a comprehensive analysis of all the issues canvassed before him. He now has more experience of the interaction between EU law and the interstices of the UK system of taxation than anyone else; and his views...