G Lim v HMRC

In G Lim v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 434 (2 July 2019) the FTT found that the appellant had not been trading in property. 

The appellant's son and daughter in law had contracted to purchase two plots of land in Leeds allegedly on behalf of the appellant. They had exchanged contracts without having the security of a mortgage offer. When on physical completion of the dwellings they could not obtain mortgage facilities they were unable to legally complete the purchases and their deposits were forfeited. The appellant claimed that as the plots had been acquired on trust for him he had been trading in property so that the expenditure in respect of the forfeited deposits constituted allowable losses. 

HMRC contended that an acquisition does not occur on exchange of contracts but rather on completion. There were no trading transactions giving rise to either...