May 2014: update on recent developments in land and property taxation. This is available to subscribers only.
SME Tax News
In Averil Finn & Gregory Finn & Robin Morris & Andrew Cornish v Revenue & Customs [2014] TC03555, a group of Enterprise Investment scheme (EIS) investors lost their relief when their company was acquired by another company.
In M J Febrey v Revenue & Customs [2014] TC03530 a director was made personal liable for tax and NICs following a deliberate failure to deduct PAYE and NICs.
Working full-time abroad means proving just that. In Paul Daniel v HMRC TC 03312, an investment banker failed to provide sufficient evidence to show that he was full-time working abroad and non-resident for CGT purposes.
MPs from the Treasury Select Committee have called for a review of HMRC's powers, deterrents and safeguards following considering the proposals in the 2014 budget which include retrospective taxation and direct access to taxpayer's bank accounts.
HMRC has agreed on proposals for developing their "Agent Strategy" and is working with agents’ representative bodies to take this work forward.
The Direct Recovery of Debts consultation: HMRC is now consulting on possibly the most terrifying new power ever proposed. It wants to be allowed to recover tax and tax credit debts directly from debtors’ bank accounts. Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of opposition to this proposal, not least because HMRC is considering that debtors once targeted should have no right of appeal.
In Richard Murray v HMRC TC 03474, the First Tier Tribunal disallowed a sideways claim for trade loss relief against general income. The trade was not run on a commercial basis.
In Neil McLocklin v HMRC (TC 03182), the First-tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) allowed a claim for share loss relief when shares had become of negligible value even though they were acquired by a nominee under some rather unusual conditions.
In RD Utilities v HMRC [2014] TC03440 a request for a Schedule 36 information notice was set aside by the tribunal because it was so poorly drafted that it was impossible for the parties to know whether it had been complied with.