Dolphin Drilling has been granted the right to take its tax appeal case against HMRC to the UK Supreme Court.
The Aberdeen-headquartered offshore driller was left distraught in December when it lost a Court of Appeal case against the taxman, despite winning two previous rulings, leaving it liable for £13m in payments.
However, after lobbying for a review, Dolphin Drilling (OSLO: DDRIL) announced today it has received permission to proceed with an appeal to the UK Supreme Court.
The hearing is yet to be scheduled but is anticipated for 2025.
It comes after a tax advisor earlier this year warned that permission applications to the Supreme Court are “notoriously unpredictable”.
HMRC said it would not have any comment until the litigation has concluded.
Wide-ranging implications
It comes amid pleas from legal experts, Dolphin itself and the British Shipping Chamber that the case would have “serious consequences” for the wider sector.
In March, the chamber said it would have implications for hundreds of rigs and vessels operating in the UK offshore sector.
The Court of Appeal hearing in December set a new precedent with wide implications on what deduction claims can be made in the sector under corporation tax law.
This case stems from a long-running battle between HMRC and Dolphin starting in 2014 after its Borgsten Dolphin rig was hired by TotalEnergies in the North Sea.
Dolphin Drilling expected to get to Supreme Court in 2025
The Court of Appeal deemed accommodation services on the rig to be more than “incidental” to the wider contract – something with implications for services being offered across the sector.
In January, Anastasia Nourescu, senior associate at third-party law firm Stewarts, said: “This is a case which has important and wide implications for the industry, won at the first two stages, and engages a point of law which would obviously benefit from a review by the highest court”.
