Sarabjit Singh KC

Tax and Rating

Sab acts for taxpayers and ratepayers and has appeared in numerous landmark cases over the last few years. These include the British Film Institute litigation on the VAT cultural exemption that went to the European Court of Justice, appearing as sole counsel in the Amoena appeal which is the only ever customs case to have gone to the House of Lords or Supreme Court, acting as lead counsel in the seminal rating case of Newbigin v Monk in the Supreme Court and appearing again in the Supreme Court in the major VAT case of SAE Education Ltd.

Selected Cases

Tax & Duties

• Hotelbeds UK Ltd v HMRC (2023): Acting for taxpayer in judicial review claim against HMRC claiming breach of legitimate expectation and failure to follow guidance, and also representing taxpayer in simultaneous statutory appeal.
• HMRC v Gray & Farrar International LLP [2023] EWCA Civ 121: Succeeded before Court of Appeal in VAT case on place of supply of services of a high-end matchmaking agency, which established the existence in English law of a ‘predominant element test’ when characterising single supplies.
• Mainpay Ltd v HMRC [2022] EWCA Civ 1620: Succeeded as lead counsel in Court of Appeal on whether a supply was of exempt medical care.
• HMRC v Kishore [2021] EWCA Civ 1565: Acted as lead counsel in case in the Court of Appeal on the correct approach in the tax tribunal to abuse of process and Article 6 of the ECHR in the context of a previous struck out appeal.
• Welltower Inc [2021]: Acted for US-based taxpayer on application of VAT welfare exemption to supplies made in UK.
• Claims Advisory Group Limited v Revenue and Customs [2021] UKUT 199 (TCC): Acted in case on whether fee received for recovery of overpaid PPI fell within the VAT insurance exemption.
• Malca-Amit (UK) Ltd v HMRC [2021]: Appeared as sole counsel for taxpayer in appeal concerning liability to duty on significant importation of rough diamonds.
• Sporting Wholesale Ltd v HMRC [2021]: Acted as sole counsel for taxpayer in multi-pronged attack on HMRC for repeated interceptions of company’s goods for no proper reason; case involved simultaneous judicial review, human rights and statutory challenges against HMRC.
• SAE Education Ltd v HMRC [2019] UKSC 14: Appeared as sole counsel for HMRC in the Supreme Court in case about what an entity needs to show to establish that it is a college ‘of’ a university for the purposes of the VAT education exemption.
• Case C-592/15, Commissioners for HMRC v British Film Institute [2017] STC 681: Successfully appeared before the Court of Justice of the European Union in case about whether Member States are permitted to choose which cultural services to exempt for the purposes of applying the cultural exemption from VAT.
• Amoena (UK) Ltd v HMRC [2016] UKSC 41, [2016] 1 WLR 2904:Appeared as sole counsel for the Revenue in the Supreme Court in customs duty case on the meanings of ‘part’ and ‘accessory’.
• South African Tourist Board v HMRC [2014] UKUT 280 (TCC), [2014] STC 2650: Succeeded in appeal on the issue of whether a tourist board owned by the South African government was making supplies of marketing services for consideration to the government.
• Vehicle Control Services Ltd v HMRC [2013] EWCA Civ 186, [2013] STC 892: Appeared before Court of Appeal in case on whether charges collected by a parking enforcement company were outside the scope of VAT as either damages for breach of contract or damages for trespass.
• British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers & Attractions Ltd v HMRC [2013] UKUT 130 (TCC): Successfully appeared before the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) on the issue of whether a trade association’s primary purpose was political lobbying and whether it would be unjustly enriched by the repayment of output tax.
• Tui Travel PLC & Ors v HMRC [2013] UKFTT 75 (TC): Successfully acted in claim by travel agents for repayment of approximately £150 million in VAT allegedly overpaid on commissions received from tour operators for selling package holidays.
• Checkprice (UK) Ltd (In Administration) v HMRC [2010] EWHC 682 (Admin), [2010] STC 1153: Acted for claimants in judicial review challenge to the actions of HMRC in detaining perishable goods without seizing or releasing them and then destroying them.
• Holland (t/a the Studio Hair Company) v HMRC [2008] EWHC 2621 (Ch), [2009] STC 150 & HMRC v Denyer [2007] EWHC 2750 (Ch), [2008] STC 633: Successfully appeared in two appeals to the Chancery Division of the High Court on the issue of whether certain supplies were supplies of land for VAT purposes.

Rating & Valuation

• Hughes (VO) v Exeter City Council [2020] UKUT 7 (LC): Acted in major case on whether loss-making museums should in effect pay no non-domestic rates.
• Newbigin (VO) v SJ & J Monk (a firm) [2017] UKSC 14, [2017] 1 WLR 851: Appeared in Supreme Court as leading counsel in case on rateability and valuation of non-domestic buildings undergoing reconstruction; reported below at [2015] EWCA Civ 78, [2015] 1 WLR 4817.
• Tunnel Tech Ltd v Reeves (VO) [2015] EWCA Civ 718: Succeeded before the Court of Appeal on the question of whether a hereditament was a ‘market garden’ for the purposes of the agricultural exemption and on the issue of whether buildings could fall within the exemption for agricultural land.
• Johnson (VO) v HB Foods Ltd [2013] UKUT (LC) 539: Appeared before President of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in case about whether appeals before the Lands Chamber are heard de novo.