Gareth Rhys

Tax & Customs

Gareth accepts instructions across revenue and customs law. He appears led and unled in the Tax Tribunal and has experience of specialist personal and capital taxes (including Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, charity sector taxation issues, trusts, foreign income, dividends and royalties, and domicile and residence issues); VAT, including classification and relief from VAT on bad debts; and tax-related judicial review.

Gareth worked on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, advising HM Treasury and other departments on revenue and customs issues in connection with the UK’s exit. This was during “tunnel” negotiations in the final months before the end of the Transition Period.

Selected Cases

• The Supreme Court appeal in Hotel la Tour Ltd v HMRC concerning whether input VAT on services like legal, marketing, and financial advisory fees, incurred to facilitate an exempt share sale of a subsidiary by a parent company could be deducted by the parent as input tax attributable to its taxable downstream taxable business of supplying hotel accommodation.
• Chisnall & others v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 857 (TC) concerning the valuation of shares listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange and corresponding relief pursuant to s587B of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988.
• Advising and representing a leading vape retailer in an appeal on the VAT treatment of their products.
• Advising and representing an importer and distributor of high quality steel in an appeal for repayment of overpaid import duty and VAT in circumstances where the relevant tariff quota had not been exhausted.
• Advising HMRC on a number of public and revenue law issues arising from the Report of the Independent Investigation into the Financial Conduct Authority’s Regulation of London Capital & Finance plc.
• Boffey v Dyer (LO) [2025] EWHC 113 (Admin) on the meaning of ‘hereditament’ in the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
• Advising an investment fund on the availability and quantum of bad debt relief under Regulation 165A of the Value Added Tax Regulations 1995/2518.
• Advising on the classification of protein bars as standard rated confectionary rather than zero rated flapjacks.

As a Judicial Assistant in the Court of Appeal, Gareth worked on:

Skatteforvaltningen (Danish Customs and Tax Divisions) v Solo Capital Partners LLP (In Special Administration) [2022] EWCA Civ 234 concerning the Danish Customs and Tax Administration’s claims for the recovery of tax refunds and their admissibility before the English courts by reason of the Revenue Rule (Rule 3(1) of Dicey, Morris & Collins on the Conflict of Laws).

HMRC v K Murphy [2022] EWCA Civ 1112 concerning the meaning of the term “profit” as it is used in s62(2)(b) of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

R (DK) v HMRC [2022] EWCA Civ 120 concerning claims for backdated tax credit under the Tax Credits Act 2002 and whether they are valid for the period before a person is recognised as a refugee.