In Altrad Services Ltd and another v HMRC [2023] EWCA Civ 474 (3 May 2023) the CA granted permission for HMRC to appeal against a decision of the Upper Tribunal (UT) on a ground which had not been raised before the FTT or UT. Permission was on terms that in hearing the substantive appeal certain assumptions would be made about the taxpayer’s subjective purpose in reacquiring assets.
The companies entered into a scheme using the long-funding lease rules to ‘step up’ their entitlement to capital allowances. The scheme steps included the sale of the assets to a bank and subsequent repurchase. Applying the line of cases beginning with W T Ramsay Ltd v CIR [1982] AC 300 the FTT had held that the companies had at no time ceased to own the assets so that allowances were not due in respect of the repurchase. The UT allowed...
