Whittalls Wines Ltd and European Food Brokers Ltd v The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) |
| Judge | Judge Thomas Scott |
| Neutral Citation | [2019] UKUT 0260 (TCC) |
| Published date | 28 August 2019 |
| Date | 28 August 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Tax,28 August 2019 |
[2019] UKUT 0260 (TCC)
Appeal number: UT/2018/0048
EXCISE DUTY/PROCEDURE – appeals against revocations of approvals
relating to duty-paid and duty-suspended alcohol - application to add further
grounds of appeal - principles applied in determining such an application
considered - application refused
UPPER TRIBUNAL
TAX AND CHANCERY CHAMBER
(1) WHITTALLS WINES LIMITED
(2) EUROPEAN FOOD BROKERS LIMITED
Appellants
- and -
THE COMMISSIONERS FOR HER MAJESTY’S
REVENUE AND CUSTOMS
Respondents
TRIBUNAL:
JUDGE THOMAS SCOTT
Sitting in public at The Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2 on 26
June 2019
Kieron Beal QC and David Bedenham, Counsel instructed by Rainer Hughes,
for the Appellant
Stephen Nathan QC, Isabel McArdle and Gideon Barth, Counsel instructed by
the General Counsel and Solicitor to HM Revenue and Customs, for the
Respondents
© CROWN COPYRIGHT 2019
DECISION
1. This is the decision on the application by Whittalls Wines Limited (“WWL”)
and European Food Brokers Limited (“EFBL”) (“the Appellants”) to add five further
5
grounds of appeal to their appeal, for which permission has been granted, against the
decision of the First-tier Tribunal (“FTT”) reported at [2018] UKFTT 0036 (TC) (“the
Decision”).
The FTT decision
2. The Appellants operated in the wholesale alcoholic beverages sector, dealing in
10
both duty-paid and duty-suspended alcohol. The Decision concerned their appeals,
brought under section 16 of the Finance Act 1994 (“section 16”) against six decisions
taken by HMRC under the legislation concerning duty-suspended alcohol. Those
decisions were, in summary:
(1) To revoke WWL’s approval to operate as a registered owner of duty-
15
suspended goods pursuant to section 100G(5) of the Customs and Excise
Management Act 1979 (“CEMA”).
(2) To revoke WWL’s approvals to operate three warehouses pursuant to
section 92(7) CEMA.
(3) To revoke EFBL’s approval to operate as a registered owner of duty-
20
suspended goods pursuant to section 100G(5), and
(4) To revoke WWL’s approval as an authorised warehousekeeper pursuant
to Regulation 18(1) of the Warehousekeepers and Owners of Warehoused
Goods Regulations 1999 (“WOWGR”).
3. In a decision extending to some 312 pages, the FTT dismissed the appeals.
25
4. As the FTT stated at [3]:
“Putting the voluminous evidence to one side, at the heart of
determining these complex appeals lies a simple question:
Were the decisions of Her Majest y’s Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”),
that the Appellants were not fit and proper persons to own and
30
warehouse duty suspended alcohol and therefore to revoke their
approvals to do so, ones that could reasonably have been arrived at and
proportionate?”
5. The Appellants’ grounds of appeal before the FTT were summarised at [37] as
follows:
35
“Outline of the Appellants’ grounds of appeal
37. The Appellants’ three grounds of appeal dated 14 July 2016 can
be summarised as follows:
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