FTO mounts legal challenge to APD hike
Major tour operators are to mount a legal challenge to the doubling in Air Passenger Duty.
The Federation of Tour Operators and its major holiday company members have obtained advice which suggests that Chancellor Gordon Brown’s doubling of APD is open to legal challenge.
The rise has no statutory authority until the House of Commons passes a resolution (under the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1968) or until new primary legislation is enacted, the FTO claims.
Neither has yet taken place and the Treasury has no grounds for its action.
“What makes the introduction date even more unfair is that four million holidaymakers had already booked departures after February 1 and tour operators are not able to recover the added tax because of UK rules on holiday prices. This is costing tour operators some £45 million,” the FTO said.
The FTO and ABTA has called upon the government to give the industry a longer period in which to introduce the tax change, as it has always done in the past both when APD was introduced in November 1997 and subsequent changes of rates.
A letter setting out the legal basis of possible claims has been sent to the Chancellor today.
FTO director general Andy Cooper said: “Because the Government to date has not on this occasion been prepared to respond positively to tour operators’ needs, FTO members find themselves with no alternative than to challenge the whole constitutional basis of the tax, and have obtained strong legal advice that a Judicial Review would prove successful.
“This is not a route we would have preferred to pursue, but what is in effect a windfall tax on tour operators of some £45 million cannot go unchallenged.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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