UT/2022/000154 - [2024] UKUT 00074 (TCC)

This appeal is concerned with whether the Respondents (UK resident but non-domiciled individuals) should be liable on the remittance basis in respect of certain payments made by an offshore company controlled by them to a third party offshore company, in consequence of which, amongst other things, the Respondents were released from liability under an indemnity they had given on a sale of shares in a UK company which they had previously controlled. The liabilities under appeal are £606,480 each, imposed on the Respondents by closure notices issued on 22 July 2020 in respect of the 2010-11 tax year.

The First-tier Tribunal (“the FTT”), in a clear and carefully reasoned decision released on 31 August 2022 (“the FTT Decision”), decided that the Respondents were not so liable for the reasons summarised below, and the Appellants (“HMRC”) now appeal to this Tribunal against the FTT Decision. As the Respondents were the Appellants in the proceedings before the FTT, for the sake of clarity we shall refer to them in this decision as “RS” and “SM” respectively, or “the Taxpayers” collectively.

We received, in electronic form, a hearing bundle of 1,292 pages, an authorities bundle of 1,462 pages and a core bundle of 50 pages.