The Leasing Partnerships v HMRC

In The Leasing Partnerships v HMRC (TC03495 – 15 April 2014) HMRC had applied for a case management decision that a statement for the taxpayers by their accountant was not evidence of a witness of fact but rather expert evidence and that therefore parts of the statement should be excluded. Mr Stoloff the author of the statement was employed by Matrix Group the promoter of the alleged tax avoidance scheme implemented by the taxpayers.

The FTT rejected HMRC’s application noting in particular that:

• even when Mr Stoloff strayed into opinions they were part of his factual account;
• the introduction to the world of swaps comprised in his statement was a useful introduction to the transactions at issue;
• his evidence on why the appellants chose to use swaps was provided as a participant with relevant...