HMRC has won three wins against tax avoidance schemes, upholding earlier judgments in HMRC’s favour at the First- Tier Tribunal. These wins has resulted in HMRC protecting over £260 million in tax.
The three cases were:
Steve Price, John Myers and James Lucas v HMRC
Malcolm Healey v HMRC
Philip Savva, Andrew Savva, Mario Savva, Savva Savva and Kalliopi Pericleous v HMRC
An appeal to the Upper Tribunal was dismissed by users of a tax avoidance scheme which was promoted by NT Advisors. The scheme created artificial losses by a combining employment income and capital gains on share options. There were 420 users of this scheme. The judges dismissed the appeal without hearing the main arguments from HMRC. This is the ninth win for HMRC against schemes promoted by NT Advisors.
The Upper Tribunal also dismissed two other cases. These schemes were designed by banks to provide the users with a much higher tax-free return on their cash deposits than they could have obtained by placing funds in a normal deposit account. Both of these berspoke schemes were marketed and sold by banks some years ago for substantial fees. The court joined these two separate cases because of similarities between the schemes.
Financial Secretary’s comments
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke stated: “The overwhelming majority of people pay the taxes they owe. These latest cases show that HMRC will effectively tackle those who try to get around their legal responsibilities. Users of avoidance schemes should think twice before trying to abuse tax reliefs to avoid paying their fair share of tax.”
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