Sarabjit was instructed on behalf of the taxpayer in the case of Charge My Street Ltd v HMRC, a lead case before the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) on the issue of whether the charging of electric vehicles in public places should attract the reduced VAT rate of 5%, as contended by the taxpayer, or the full standard VAT rate of 20%, as contended by HMRC. The Tribunal had no hesitation in accepting in full Sarabjit’s arguments on the correct construction of the relevant legislation, and accordingly decided that the reduced rate of VAT did apply to supplies of public EV charging (below a certain level). The effect of the Tribunal’s decision is that HMRC have wrongly collected tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds of VAT from EV charging suppliers, many of whom may now seek to reclaim that tax from HMRC.
Sarabjit was instructed by Dan Barlow, Oliver Jarratt, Nicole Brook, Ben Bailey and Jennifer Godden at Deloitte, who were instrumental in securing this victory for the taxpayer and for the EV charging sector generally.
