Marks & Spencer v C & E Commissioners

(No. 4) CJEC Case C-62/00; [2002] STC 1036; [2003] 1 WLR 665

Marks & Spencer’s retail ‘teacakes’ and had incorrectly accounted for output tax on these. The Commissioners excepted that the ‘teacakes’ should have been zero rated and allowed the company to claim back to the over declared output tax, though limiting them to only the last years.

The main issue of this case was that Commissioners had illegally introduced a cap without an adequate transitional period.

The decision went in favour of the tax payer and they were allowed to claim back overpaid output tax back to 1 April 1973.