HP Schofield v HMRC

In HP Schofield v HMRC (CA – 11 July) an individual (S) realised a substantial capital gain on the disposal of some loan notes in 2002/03. However in his tax return he claimed that he had made a loss of more than £11 000 000 on the disposal of a ‘put’ option. He had purchased the option on 7 February 2003 along with a corresponding ‘call’ option and disposed of it on 4 April 2003. (He disposed of the ‘call’ option on 7 April 2003 by which time he had become resident in Spain so that the gain on this disposal was outside the scope of UK CGT.) HMRC rejected the claim and S appealed. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed his appeal holding on the evidence that the options ‘were inextricably linked with each other to form a continuous process which could...