Notable Cases

This appeal concerned penalties levied by HMRC on a company for the late filing of its corporation tax return. Patrick Cannon appeared for the company against HMRC. The case is interesting because HMRC had reduced the penalties to nil for a sister company which had also filed its returns late in identical circumstances. However, this fact was held not to be grounds for the company to be treated by HMRC...

This appeal involved Follower Notices and penalties for failing to take corrective action following the receipt by the taxpayer of follower notices from HMRC.

After a fairly extensive examination of the taxpayer by me and cross-examination by HMRC, I persuaded the tax tribunal to allow a substantial reduction in the amount of the penalties levied by HMRC.

Read the decision here

This appeal, in which I appeared for the taxpayer company, contains a detailed analysis of the scope of the 15% SDLT charge under Schedule 4A FA 2003 and whether there was ‘representative occupation” by a director and also of the sum of the lower proportions calculation in para 20 Schedule 15 FA 2003 and the attribution of control to associates within section 451 CTA 2010 in a purchase by a...

I represented the taxpayers in this appeal where the tax tribunal decided that the refund of the 3% higher rates on the sale of a main residence following the acquisition of the replacement was not available when the taxpayers had purchased two side-by side apartments a few weeks apart with the intention of amalgamating them to form one apartment as their replacement main residence prior to the sale of their...

This decision of the FTT concerns the effect in  SDLT of a transfer of rights by the grant of an option to an unconnected party and has some interesting observations on the applicability of section 75A(6) (effective date of the notional transaction).

Oisin Fanning and the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

In this appeal I represented the taxpayers in a claim for Multiple Dwellings Relief in the context of a main house plus granny annex which were connected by a short corridor but not a lockable internal door at the effective date and whether they were each suitable for use as a single dwelling. This case contains some useful analysis of the meaning of “dwelling” and the equivalent case-law for the...