In Curzon Capital Ltd v HMRC [2019] TC 6949 the FTT found that although the company was involved in notifiable tax avoidance schemes it was not the promoter.
The tax scheme was a varient of a Disguised Remuneration contractor loan scheme.
- It involved a transfer of funds, equivalent to earnings, being sent to an offshore entity of which 82% is returned to the participant.
- The remaing 18% was retained by the various parties as fees and charges.
- This 18% charge was considerably less than the income tax that would otherwise be payable.
HMRC brought the case for an order that the arrangements were notifiable arrangements within the scope of Finance Act 2004 s306, commonly known as DOTAS (disclosure of tax avoidance scheme).
The tribunal found that the scheme was DOTAS notifable.
It also found that:
- The company did not itself provide the scheme.
- It simply provided the administration for a scheme bought from a man called Neil Masters who provided his services through various entities.
The company was not a scheme Promoter: the thing it was administering happened to be tax avoidance arrangements but that did not change this fact.
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