In the first part of this two-part series, Fabian Barth lays out the circumstances under which retained EU law allows taxpayers to deduct input tax even in the absence of a valid VAT invoice.
In R (Hotelbeds UK Ltd) v HMRC [2025] EWHC 2312, the Administrative Court directed HMRC to allow input tax deduction notwithstanding the business holding no VAT invoices at all. Whilst welcome for businesses in general, it is important to appreciate the limits of the judgment and where it stands in the wider legal order.
This part of the article series will address the EU law principles which still influence the status of the VAT
