BN66 - Court of Appeal and beyond

[OnYourBikeGB]

I reckon go for it - but be under no illusions about the chances.

You have to convince half of 650 MP's to vote for an Act of Parliament to "give" £300M to relatively rich people, while cuts are being made to services for the poor. Argue it whichever way you want - that is how it will be spun.

Given that Danny Alexander firmly squashed any plan to remove the 50% tax rate, which many argue costs revenue, I just cannot see how it is possible to get any kind of movement in this.

The major problem is that the political heat they will get from repealing BN66 will be several orders of magnitude higher than the heat they will get from all the other points raised.

Put simply, you're not holding a strong enough hand - but, maybe you can luck out and bluff enough of them to get some momentum.

No, we're not arguing that they should give us anything other than the right to fight our case on the same legal basis as everybody else. We could still lose. It is a longshot, but I'd rather go down kicking.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

No, we're not arguing that they should give us anything other than the right to fight our case on the same legal basis as everybody else. We could still lose. It is a longshot, but I'd rather go down kicking.

That's still a very big ask.

The Government are in a win-win situation at the moment by letting the courts decide this.

1) If HMRC win, they get to (notionally) collect £300M. They've already put in place a Protocol to allay fears that this would set a precedent for further retrospective legislation.

2) If HMRC lose, then the Government can reverse BN66 without any loss of face or negative PR. After all, they did vote against it in opposition, so this wouldn't be a U-turn. And any flak for letting us off would be directed at the Judges.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Steed/KPMG's ECtHR application

There's nothing much to report.

It was submitted January 2009. They received an acknowledgement, so it's in the system.

As far as I know, they are challenging BN66 using the same HR argument as us (Huitson).

Given the enormous backlog at ECtHR, it's debatable whether the application would even be considered before our case reaches the Supreme Court.

[smalldog]

There's nothing much to report.

It was submitted January 2009. They received an acknowledgement, so it's in the system.

As far as I know, they are challenging BN66 using the same HR argument as us (Huitson).

Given the enormous backlog at ECtHR, it's debatable whether the application would even be considered before our case reaches the Supreme Court.

DR, does that case have to conclude before we would need to pay up should the SC fail? IS it one of the cases considered by HMRC to be part of the judicial process which stops them collecting?

[TAF4]

letter from MP

Have just received a very comforting and reassuring letter from MP. It reveals none of their ammunition but commits to taking the cases (Huitson & Shiner) to the SC. It also appears to extend the MP commitment potentially into Europe if necessary.
Bravo and thanks.

[smalldog]

Have just received a very comforting and reassuring letter from MP. It reveals none of their ammunition but commits to taking the cases (Huitson & Shiner) to the SC. It also appears to extend the MP commitment potentially into Europe if necessary.
Bravo and thanks.

splendid, hopefully that will calm some of the nerves from last week...good job MP and thanks for keeping up the fight!!

[Fireship]

Have just received a very comforting and reassuring letter from MP. It reveals none of their ammunition but commits to taking the cases (Huitson & Shiner) to the SC. It also appears to extend the MP commitment potentially into Europe if necessary.
Bravo and thanks.

Didn't doubt it for a minute but damn good to hear nonetheless!!

Thanks for updating us with the great news!!

[nevergiveup]

splendid, hopefully that will calm some of the nerves from last week...good job MP and thanks for keeping up the fight!!

Yeah. Not received the letter but that's cheered me up. Think it's time for those bashing MP to give them a break!

[DonkeyRhubarb]

IS it one of the cases considered by HMRC to be part of the judicial process which stops them collecting?

I don't believe it is at the moment.

If the SC was lost then an extension would have to be negotiated with HMRC.

It also depends what happens to Steed's application in the mean time. If it was accepted by Strasbourg then I think HMRC would continue to postpone collection.

If the application is still pending in 18 months time then HMRC might not be so amenable. Although it could be argued that by then the application had been in the system 4 years and a decision would be more imminent.

It may also be possible to petition Strasbourg to try and prevent enforcement.

Remember, HMRC know that enforcing collection could involve asset seizures and bankruptcy. It wouldn't look good if they did this before the court had even heard the case.

[ContractIn]

This my understanding.

First MP have to ask the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal. Don't ask me why because this is nearly always refused.

They have to get this in by tomorrow.

Assuming it is refused, they will then have 30 days to apply to the Supreme Court.

So, we're looking at a deadline of roughly end of August.

Do we know whether the appeal application was submitted?