Albermarle 4 LLP v HMRC

In Albermarle 4 LLP v HMRC (FTT - TC/2011/02843) a limited liability partnership made losses on the purchase and resale of three commercial properties. It treated these as trading losses. HMRC issued a ‘discovery amendment’ for 2005/06 under TMA 1970 s 30B(1) reclassifying the losses as ‘property losses’ (so that the members of the partnership would not be able to set the losses against their general income). The partnership appealed contending that the amendment was not authorised by s 30B(1) since this only applied where profits had been omitted or where ‘an amount of profits so included is or has become insufficient’ and did not apply in a situation where there had only been losses and there had not been any profits. The FTT accepted this contention and allowed the appeal. Judge Raghavan held that the reference to profits in s 30B could not...