Slaughters joins Landwell in historic Inland Revenue case

Landwell and Slaughter and May will jointly lead the biggest tax case in UK history following the selection of test cases to be used by the claimants.

More than 500 claimant companies are involved.

They are seeking damages from the Inland Revenue for the alleged discriminatory effect of advanced corporation tax provisions in force until 1998.

Because of the large number of claimants, the case is being conducted like a group action, and claimants will share the cost of cases starting in the High Court at the end of the year.

More than 13 law firms are acting for claimants.

But of the eight test cases chosen to carry the case forward, Slaughters is acting on three cases in which the revenue has admitted liability, and Landwell on three of four test cases where liability is not admitted.

The firm acting on the fourth contended case is London firm Saunders & Co.

The estimated value of the actions is 1.5-5 billion.

Jeremy Fleming