1 Crown Office Row

Sarabjit (Sab) Singh KC specialises in tax, including the interface between tax and public law. Sab also specialises in public law in its own right, and frequently appears in judicial review and tax cases in the highest courts, including regular appearances in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Sab primarily acts for taxpayers across a whole range of taxes, principally indirect tax but including direct tax also. He has appeared in numerous landmark cases over the last few years. These include the British Film Institute litigation on the VAT cultural exemption that went to the European Court of Justice, appearing as sole counsel in the Amoena appeal which is the only ever customs case to have gone to the House of Lords or Supreme Court, acting as lead counsel in the seminal rating case of Newbigin v Monk in the Supreme Court and appearing again in the Supreme Court in the major VAT case of SAE Education Ltd. Sab primarily acts for taxpayers against HMRC on liability issues in a wide range of cases across multiple sectors, and often successfully challenges HMRC’s approach before a case has got anywhere near a court or tribunal.

In public law, Sab appears in first-instance judicial reviews for both claimants and public bodies and also has vast appellate experience in the Court of Appeal, having appeared there dozens of times as sole counsel. He has acted in a number of complex cases, particularly where they interact with other areas he practices in. For example, he successfully appeared for the taxpayer in the Administrative Court in the Hotelbeds case challenging HMRC’s refusal to repay input VAT, acted as amicus in the Court of Appeal in the AR (Pakistan) case on immigration bail powers, has had numerous successful appearances in the Court of Appeal in human rights cases and appeared in the Supreme Court in the important constitutional case of Majera.

Call: 2001; KC: 2018m. He is also a member of the Bar Council’s Equality, Diversity and Social Mobility Committee, with a particular interest in ensuring the fair allocation of publicly funded work.

Punjabi