Helen Lethaby examines the proposed general anti-abuse rule, the decision in Greene King, HMRC's latest views on perpetual debt, and further guidance on the Banking Code of Conduct.
The GAARHMRC has published for consultation its draft GAAR (general anti-abuse rule). At a conceptual level it borrows heavily from Graham Aaronson QC’s illustrative GAAR (published as part of the GAAR study group’s report in November 2011) although the draftsman has distilled it into a rather more succinct – and arguably more HMRC-friendly – three pages.
The draft GAAR provides for the counteraction on a just and reasonable basis of tax advantages arising from ‘tax arrangements’ which are ‘abusive’. Arrangements are ‘tax arrangements’ if they have a main purpose of obtaining a tax advantage (the broad gateway). Tax arrangements are ‘abusive’ if they cannot reasonably...
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