21 November 2017 
Andrea Marshall, Tax Specialist
It seems that the argument for compound interest has finally been quashed by the Supreme Court in the Littlewoods decision. With £1.25bn of compound interest at stake on Littlewoods' claim alone (on tax of only £205m) with plenty more stood over behind this decision, the stakes for this court action were high, and it has already been to the Court of Justice of the European Union, back to the UK's Court of Appeal (where Littlewoods won) and now, finally, to the UK's Supreme Court where HMRC have won - please see our full news article for more details of the decision.
Several years ago, some taxpayers had submitted tribunal claims to stand behind Littlewoods and others had registered High Court claims (and there were certainly some universities making High Court claims in 2009). There is a small possibility that another tribunal appeal may go forward to seek another reference to the CJEU, but this seems unlikely. It seems that any universities with High Court claims stood over behind Littlewoods can no longer pursue those claims. If your university had some kind of claim stood over behind Littlewoods and your advisers haven't been in touch, it would be worth checking with them what your position is.
