In City Shoes (Wholesale) and others v HMRC [2018] EWCA Civ 315 (2 March 2018) the Court of Appeal dismissed an application for judicial review of HMRC’s decision to restrict the advantages of the Liechtenstein disclosure facility (LDF) in relation to the claimants.
Although the LDF had originally been designed to counter the avoidance of UK tax by holding undeclared assets in Liechtenstein it had become more widely used with HMRC’s consent as a means of regularising UK tax liabilities for those with assets held anywhere offshore. The claimants were all advised by the same firm BDO and had applied for registration under the LDF between 30 August 2013 and 18 November 2013 in relation to employee benefit trust (EBT) arrangements they had implemented. Following an internal review HMRC had informed the claimants that because there had been an ongoing enquiry...
