In Flanagan and two others v HMRC (TC03314 – 20 February 2014) the tribunal was reviewing the ‘Working Wheels’ marketed loss scheme.
The success of the scheme depended on the taxpayers having carried out a trade paid a manufactured overseas dividend and incurred a fee representing the ‘incidental cost of obtaining finance’ under ITTOIA 2005 s 58.
The tribunal found that none of the appellants had carried on a trade. Under the joint venture agreement they had signed a bare trustee was buying and selling cars and allocating the transactions to the participants. The participants only obtained the information necessary for the completion of their tax returns and displayed no interest in any of the transactions. Judge Bishopp found that ‘this was not a trade but a means of securing tax relief’.
Although the tribunal accepted that the legislation contemplates the possibility that a manufactured dividend payment...