In Michael Macklin v HMRC [2015] UKUT 0039 (4 February 2015) the UT found that a pension plan was established in the US for the purpose of double tax treaty relief.
Mr Macklin received a pension from the World Bank’s staff retirement plan (SRP). The World Bank is an international organisation based in Washington. It is the SRP’s trustee and the management and administration of the SRP is carried out in Washington.
The issue was whether art 17(1)(b) of the UK/US double tax treaty (the DTA) entitled Mr Macklin to claim partial exemption from UK income tax on his pension. This depended on whether the SRP was ‘established in’ the US. Mr Macklin argued that the words ‘established in’ should be given their ordinary meaning and that they refer to the geographic location of where a pension scheme is set up funded managed and administered. By contrast...
