Foundation Partners (GP) v HMRC

In Foundation Partners (GP) v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 18 (TC) (21 January 2021) the FTT found that the appellant Foundation Partners (Foundation) had not been trading and therefore disallowed the trading loss claimed in the partnership tax return.

Foundation was a general partnership established through Future Capital Partners (FCP) to form a vehicle for a property development in Montenegro.

Losses of over £36m were recorded in the partnership tax return for 2008/09 precipitated on an accounting write down of stock in the partnership. HMRC issued a closure notice denying this partnership trading loss. Foundation appealed to the FTT.

The FTT distinguished this case from the many recent cases concerning trading activity because Foundation had failed to raise the funds it needed to complete the project and at the time it entered into the contractual arrangements the project as a whole was only ‘half-baked’.

The FTT found that...