Loan relationships and MJP Media

It is rare for there to be disquiet over how the tax judiciary has approached cases apart perhaps from appellants and their advisers. Judgments while lengthy are often distinguished by the care that those hearing cases have taken to consider the facts and arguments of the protagonists. So it was interesting that disinterested parties (see for example the article ‘Loan relationships: MJP Media’ by Graham Iversen Tax Journal dated 14 October 2011) were troubled by the outcome: as it transpired was the Court of Appeal.

Readers will probably recall that MJP Media effected a partial debt waiver and claimed that the relevant paragraphs of the then loan relationship legislation enabled it to claim a loss (more precisely...