Hannover Leasing Wachstumswerte Europa Beteiligungsgesellschaft and another v HMRC

In Hannover Leasing Wachstumswerte Europa Beteiligungsgesellschaft and another v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 262 (18 April 2019) the FTT found that s 75A applied to a series of steps; the consideration for the resulting notional transaction was £138.85m so that the SDLT due was £5.55m.

GCLOD was established in 2006 as a fund backed by a small group of investors and managed by a company in the Greycoat group. It was established to acquire develop and invest in offices in central London. It had acquired Crown Place in October 2006 through an acquisition structure designed to facilitate the disposal of Crown Place in an SDLT efficient way. The acquisition structure was as follows.

A Guernsey Unit Trust GPUT was set up and 99.7% of its units issued to GCLOD. The balance was issued to another Greycoat company. The trust was set up as a ‘Baker...