Taxpayer pleads anti-avoidance rule or Ramsay

The inspiration for this article is the reluctance expressed by Mann J in Anson to allow the taxpayer to plead TA 1988 s 739 (transfer of assets abroad) an ‘avowedly anti-avoidance’ provision to avoid double taxation on the income arising from his investment in a Delaware LLC. He called it a ‘Lewis Carroll-like inversion’ and expected HMRC to argue that it is for them and not the taxpayer to invoke a section whose purpose is to prevent avoidance. However to his surprise HMRC ‘joined in the game’. He therefore reluctantly decided the case on other grounds. This article considers whether...