Aria Technology is headed for the Court of Appeal in a third go at overturning a £750,000 VAT fraud ruling.
The company has secured permission from Lord Justice Lewison to appeal against an HMRC decision to deny the firm £758,770.69 in input tax. The taxman ruled it had taken part in a carousel fraud scheme and altered Aria Technology’s VAT return for period 07/06 on the basis that the company “knew, or should have known, that the transactions… were connected with the fraudulent evasion of VAT”.
A net total of just over £300,000 was said to be due to HMRC from Aria Technology.
The company was said to have taken part in a VAT evasion scam by forming part of a trading chain that scammed the taxman out of lawfully due taxes, though company director Aria Taheri has always denied this.
Aria Technology appealed against HMRC’s decision to the First-Tier Tribunal, a specialised tax court, and lost. It took the case a step higher to the Upper Tribunal’s Tax and Chancery Chamber, losing there too.
The judge who presided over that second appeal, Mr Justice Roth, refused the company permission to appeal, the Court of Appeal gave Aria Technology the go-ahead earlier this year.
The Court of Appeal case is scheduled to be heard in January 2020.
