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WPP fights the taxman for millions

By This Is Money
Updated: 07:43 EDT, 13 March 2011

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Advertising giant WPP has launched a legal challenge to recover millions of pounds in stamp duty paid on a recent acquisition.

A spokesman for WPP said that it could expect to retrieve 'several million pounds' from Revenue & Customs after the acquisition of American advertising agency Grey Global in 2005 for £800m. A Revenue spokesman declined to comment.

It follows a landmark case in 2009 when HSBC, Britain's biggest bank, won a ruling that the UK stamp duty reserve tax it was charged when it bought French bank CCF contravened EU law. HSBC is thought to have received a refund of about £27m.

About 16 companies are seeking to recover stamp duty reserve tax, which relates to overseas acquisitions. It was introduced to simplify the collection of stamp duty due on the transfer of shares in cross-border deals.

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