Ashbolt and another v HMRC and another

In Ashbolt and another v HMRC and another [2020] EWHC 1588 (Admin) (18 June) the High Court dismissed an application for judicial review of a decision by Leeds Crown Court to issue search and seizure warrants relating to a criminal investigation conducted by HMRC.

The claimants were users of a tax scheme which HMRC contended involved the use of purported loans to disguise taxable income and were caught by the loan charge. They also introduced the scheme to their clients. In the course of civil enquiries into the scheme and following the introduction of the loan charge in 2016 the claimants submitted ‘fiduciary receipts agreements’ (FRAs) to HMRC in 2017 which indicated that the claimants as users of the scheme had received payments under the scheme in a fiduciary capacity and that this had always been the position. As a result HMRC began a criminal...