The Pollen Estate Trustee Co Ltd v HMRC

In The Pollen Estate Trustee Co Ltd v HMRC (and related appeal) (CA – 26 June) a company (P) acquired four properties. It submitted a claim for repayment of SDLT contending that it had made the acquisitions as a bare trustee for the beneficiaries of a trust and that as two of those beneficiaries were UK charities it should be entitled to relief under FA 2003 Sch 8 in respect of the proportion of the properties which was attributable to those charitable beneficiaries. HMRC rejected the claim but the CA unanimously allowed P’s appeal. Lewison LJ held that Sch 8 para 1(1) should be construed as providing that a land transaction was exempt from charge to the extent that the purchaser was a charity providing that the other conditions were met. Exemption should apply to ‘that proportion of the beneficial interest that is attributable to...