Target Group Ltd (UKSC 2021/0189) - Granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court
02/09/2022
It has now been confirmed that Target Group was granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on 9 August 2022.
In July 2021, the Court of Appeal (CoA) found unanimously that outsourced loan servicing is not exempt from VAT when the servicing is only performed by a third party loan servicer after the loan has been granted – further detail can be found here.
The exact timings around next steps are not certain at this stage, but based on a typical timeframe for a Supreme Court decision, we would not expect to have a decision until at least a few months after a hearing (which itself can take time to schedule), so it could be some time until we have the final verdict in this litigation.
In the meantime, taxpayers making (or receiving) similar supplies to Target that may have been assessing their position in light of the CoA judgment (including taxpayers who have historically relied on case law, like FDR, that the CoA brought into doubt), should consider how to manage their position whilst the Supreme Court decision is pending. This will be particularly relevant for payment providers (including many FinTech groups), outsourcing groups, banks themselves, and credit card operations.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss the case itself or its potential implications, please let us know.
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