In R oao J Boulting and another v HMRC [2020] EWHC 2207 (Admin) (12 August 2020) the High Court refused the taxpayer’s application for judicial review of HMRC’s decision to void the statutory clearance it had given on a purchase by an unquoted trading company of its own shares.
PSC Training and Development Group Limited (the Company) had applied for and received clearance that its buyback of shares would be treated as a capital transaction in accordance with CTA 2020 s 1033. The transaction to buy back shares from Mr Boulting proceeded and Mr Boulting recorded the transaction in his tax return on that basis.
In an enquiry into that return HMRC decided that the statutory clearance should be treated as void on the basis that the company had used a value for the shares it purchased which was ‘materially greater than market...
