The Quentin Skinner 2015 Settlement L and others v HMRC

In The Quentin Skinner 2015 Settlement L and others v HMRC [2022] EWCA Civ 1222 (16 September 2022) the Court of Appeal (CA) held that trustees were entitled to entrepreneurs’ relief (now known as business asset disposal relief) even though the beneficiaries had been qualifying beneficiaries of the trusts for only four months. 

Three trusts were established by the same settlor each for the benefit of one of his sons. The beneficiaries were given respective interests in possession in the whole of each settlement in July 2015. By deed of gift the settlor gave 55 000 class D ordinary shares in a company to each settlement in August 2015. In December 2015 the trustees of each settlement disposed of those shares and claimed entrepreneurs’ relief. The beneficiaries had each personally held 32 250 class C ordinary shares in the company since 2011. These shares entitled each beneficiary...