In P Vaines v HMRC [2018] EWCA Civ 45 (25 January 2018) the Court of Appeal upheld the UT’s decision that a payment made by a partner in a law firm to a bank in order to avoid bankruptcy was not deductible.
This was an appeal of the UT’s decision dismissing Mr Vaines’ claim to deduct a payment of €300 000 to Bayerische Landesbank on the basis that it had not been incurred wholly and exclusively for the purposes of his trade. He had made this payment as full settlement of his share of a claim the bank had against a law firm HH in which he had been a partner and which had ceased trading.
The Court of Appeal first observed that the only income of Mr Vaines’ in 2007/08 came from his trade in the law firm SSD which...
