Herefordshire Property Company v HMRC

In Herefordshire Property Company v HMRC [2015] UKFTT 79 (16 February 2015) the FTT found that a company which had implemented a scheme later found to be ineffective had not been negligent.

Herefordshire had sold a substantial investment property and distributed the proceeds to its main shareholder. It had purchased a planning scheme from Montpelier to mitigate the capital gain. The scheme relied on a loophole in the tax legislation on insurance policies by creating a capital loss in the absence of economic loss. The company had then filed its return declaring the gain claiming the loss and quoting the DOTAS number of the scheme.

Following Jason Drummond v HMRC [2009] EWCA Civ 608 in which the Court of Appeal had held that a similar scheme failed Herefordshire had withdrawn the loss claim. HMRC had imposed a penalty ...