Karen Cooper (Cooper Cavendish) examines the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision on employee benefit trusts, and speculates on HMRC’s approach to similar structures.
The facts in RFC 2012 Plc (in liquidation) (formerly The Rangers Football Club) v General Advocate for Scotland [2017] UKSC 45 (the Rangers case) are as follows. The Murray Group established an offshore discretionary employee benefit trust (EBT) in 2001 (the ‘principal trust’) to which various employing companies within the group made contributions during the tax years 2001/02 to 2008/09 totalling more than £56m. Within the principal trust were 108 sub-trusts established for individual employees and their family members. The relevant employees were appointed ‘protectors’ of their sub-trusts and could nominate the beneficiaries who typically received benefits in the form of unsecured loans. HMRC raised assessments to income tax under PAYE and NICs on various Murray Group employers in respect of payments into the sub-trusts.
The...
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Karen Cooper (Cooper Cavendish) examines the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision on employee benefit trusts, and speculates on HMRC’s approach to similar structures.
The facts in RFC 2012 Plc (in liquidation) (formerly The Rangers Football Club) v General Advocate for Scotland [2017] UKSC 45 (the Rangers case) are as follows. The Murray Group established an offshore discretionary employee benefit trust (EBT) in 2001 (the ‘principal trust’) to which various employing companies within the group made contributions during the tax years 2001/02 to 2008/09 totalling more than £56m. Within the principal trust were 108 sub-trusts established for individual employees and their family members. The relevant employees were appointed ‘protectors’ of their sub-trusts and could nominate the beneficiaries who typically received benefits in the form of unsecured loans. HMRC raised assessments to income tax under PAYE and NICs on various Murray Group employers in respect of payments into the sub-trusts.
The...
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