Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Oliver
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 03 December 1979 |
| Date | 03 December 1979 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division.
Mr. S. Brown (instructed by the Solicitor for Customs & Excise) for the Crown.
The taxpayer did not appear.
Before: Griffiths J.
VAT - Second-hand dealer selling stolen cars at public auction - Whether such sales in course of business carried on by dealer - Whether such sales supplies of goods - section 1 section 2 section 5Finance Act 1972, sec. 1, 2 and 5 (now section 1 section 2 section 23sec. 1, 2 and 23).
This was an appeal by the Crown from a decision of the Manchester VAT Tribunal which allowed an appeal by the taxpayer from a decision of the Commissioners that there was no supply for VAT purposes when stolen cars were sold at auction.
The taxpayer was a second-hand car dealer who sold cars at auction which he had either stolen or which he had received knowing that they had been stolen. The Commissioners assessed the taxpayer to VAT on the proceeds of these sales. On appeal to a VAT Tribunal, the assessment was quashed on the grounds that the sales, being sales of stolen goods, did not comply with the requirements of the law of contract and accordingly did not amount to a supply within section 1 section 2 section 5Finance Act 1972, sec. 1, 2 and 5. The Crown appealed.
Held, allowing the Crown's appeal:
For the purposes of Finance Act 1972, "supply" meant the passing of possession in goods pursuant to an agreement whereunder the supplier agreed to part and the recipient agreed to take possession of the goods. In that context the word "possession" meant control over the goods in the sense of having the immediate facility for their use. The transactions at auction were a "supply" and accordingly the taxpayer was liable to account for VAT on the proceeds arising from such supply.
Griffiths J.: This is an appeal by the C. & E. Commrs. from the decision of a VAT Tribunal which allowed an appeal by the respondent against the appellants' notice of assessment of VAT, dated 16 February 1978.
The facts out of which the assessment arose are as follows. The respondent is a dishonest second-hand car dealer. One form of dishonesty that he practised was selling at auction motor cars which are known in criminal circles as "ringers", that is, motor cars that had in fact been stolen but which had been clothed with a new and false identity by fitting number plates to them which had been taken from wrecked motor cars and filing off the chassis numbers and engine numbers on the...
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