Deutsche Bank Group Services (UK) Ltd v HMRC

In Deutsche Bank Group Services (UK) Ltd v HMRC (TC00944 – 8 February) a bank entered into arrangements for certain bonuses intended to be payable to identified individual employees to be paid into a scheme and used to purchase interests in shares in a company resident outside the UK. HMRC issued determinations under PAYE Regulations reg 80 on the basis that the sums in question were ‘earnings received by employees’. The bank appealed contending inter alia that the shares received by the employees were ‘restricted securities’ within ITEPA 2003 s 423. The First-Tier Tribunal reviewed the evidence in detail and dismissed the appeal. The tribunal found that ‘this is a composite transaction designed and executed as a whole’. Its only purpose was ‘that of reducing the burden of income tax’ and national insurance contributions. The bank had undertaken ‘a series of closely coordinated events’....