This month’s briefing is dominated by tribunal decisions. In W Reeves, the Upper Tribunal deploys the rules of statutory interpretation to allow a taxpayer’s claim for holdover relief. In D Higgins, in reversing the FTT’s decision, the UT denies an extension of CGT principal private residence relief back to the date of exchange on an off-plan purchase. In N Kothari, the FTT considers reasonable excuse in the context of PAYE and high earners. In A Davies and others v HMRC [2018], the FTT examines the transfer of assets code and the availability of the motive defence, where HMRC claimed that tax mitigation played a central part in the taxpayers’ decision to establish an offshore structure. In A Steele v HMRC [2018] UKFTT 547, the FTT scrutinises the circumstances of when a taxpayer should notify HMRC of his chargeability to income tax, where HMRC’s own guidance is found to be wrong.
