These are our brief notes and thoughts on cases published in the past month, which caught our eye and are likely to be of particular interest to tax practitioners.
10 recent tax cases that matter - December 2020
These are our brief notes and thoughts on cases published in the past month, which caught our eye and are likely to be of particular interest to tax practitioners. Full case reports and commentary on most of these cases will be included within our normal reference sources in the coming weeks.
VAT
Safestore Ltd v HMRC
Was a self-storage company which obliged its customers to take out insurance with its captive insurance company in Guernsey making an exempt supply of insurance to its customers or providing an insurance intermediary service to the Guernsey company? Read more...
Bluejay Mining plc v HMRC
This is the latest case on the question of when a holding company is in business and so entitled to register for VAT. Here the holding company provided technical services to mining subsidiaries and amounts invoiced for the services were added to the subsidiaries’ loan accounts. Read more...
Revive Corporation Limited v HMRC
This is a case about missing trader fraud, in particular whether the company, which supplied computer parts, knew, or should have known, that its transactions were connected with fraudulent evasion of VAT. These cases are always fact heavy and there is no need here to go into the details. Read more...
Tax administration
Test Claimants in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation and others v HMRC
This is the latest, but not the last, instalment in the long-running saga relating to claims for restitution of tax paid under the pre-April 1999 dividend tax rules which were subsequently found to be incompatible with EU law. The decision is concerned only with the issue of the time limit for making such claims. Read more...
Michael Parker v HMRC
This is a classic example of the procedural tangles that can arise when an officer of HMRC fails to make clear the basis on which they are acting. The background here is a dispute that had being going on for over 10 years. Read more...
Employment
Keith Murphy v HMRC
One-off payments to employees have always been a problem area in tax ― are they ordinary employment income or some form of non-taxable compensation payment? Here the payment related to a settlement of a long-standing dispute between a group of metropolitan policemen and their police authority about non-payment of certain overtime and other allowances. Read more...
Business tax
Hopscotch Limited v HMRC
When does doing up a property for resale constitute a trade? That was the question in this appeal about liability to ATED. There is an exemption within ATED for property development trades, and the taxpayer sought to rely on this as a defence against an assessment raised by HMRC. Read more...
Capital gains tax
Stephen Core v HMRC
If, when you move into a house, you have already had an offer from somebody to buy it from you (which you ultimately accept), can you still have had the intention to reside there with a degree of permanence? That matters because, if you cannot, private residence relief is not available on the disposal. Read more...
Inheritance tax
Executors of the late Sheriff Graham Loudon Cox v HMRC
This is another case on the familiar topic of whether a holiday letting activity qualifies for business property relief or is a business of making and holding investments, which would not qualify. Read more...
Pensions
Gibson v HMRC
Although this is a case about a late application for enhanced pension protection, it is really about when a reasonable excuse defence can be admitted when a taxpayer has relied on a professional adviser and that adviser has made a mistake. Read more...
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