The Plessey Company Ltd
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 11 November 1994 |
| Date | 11 November 1994 |
| Court | Value Added Tax Tribunal |
VAT Tribunal
The following cases were referred to in the decision:
BOC International Ltd (1982) VATTR 84
C & E Commrs v British Railways Board VAT(1976) 1 BVC 103
Imperial Group Pension Trust Ltd v Imperial Tobacco LtdUNK[1991] 2 All ER 597
Manchester Ship Canal Co v C & E Commrs VAT(1982) 1 BVC 471
P & O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd VAT(LON/91/2146 and 2532) No. 7846; [1992] BVC 955
Input tax - Solicitors' services - Pension transfer arrangements - Solicitors appointed to advise representative beneficiaries - High Court proceedings instituted to enable trustees to approve transfer arrangement - Services arranged through Trustees - Whether supplies made "to" appellant through trustees - Value Added Tax Act 1983, s. 14(3)(a).
The issue was whether tax paid by the appellant on solicitors' services supplied to selected beneficiaries of a pension restructuring arrangement where a sanctioning order of the High Court was required by the trustees in order to implement the arrangement had been supplied "to" the appellant so as to enable it to reclaim input tax charged on the supplies.
In September 1989 the appellant ("P"), which was concerned with the manufacture and sale of electronic equipment, was acquired by GEC plc and Siemens AG. Following this, the two acquiring companies participated in detailed discussions with the trustees and committees of management of P's pension fund ("the fund") regarding the terms of the transfer of its assets and liabilities into schemes run by each company.
Agreement in principle to the transfers was drawn up and it was then considered necessary to seek the approval of the High Court. For the court to issue a Sanctioning Order it had to be satisfied that the interests of the beneficiaries had been properly safeguarded. The court could then be asked to make representation orders binding all beneficiaries to the transfer terms. Clearly it was impractical for all the 39,000 beneficiaries to be joined and 14 were chosen to represent various categories of fund pensioners so that the interests of each respective class were represented in the proceedings.
The selected beneficiaries were provided with independent legal advisers to enable them, through counsel, to make submissions to the court regarding the implications of the transfer agreements both for themselves and for the class of beneficiary which each represented. Six firms were instructed and letters of engagement were drawn up naming...
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