14 January 2011

DETAILS OF AVOIDANCE STUDY GROUP ANNOUNCED

Graham Aaronson QC, today notified the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, of the experts who will work on his study into a General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) and the areas they will cover.
This follows the Exchequer Secretary’s announcement in December that a study group would be set up to explore the case for a GAAR in the UK.
Those working with Graham Aaronson in the committee are:
John Bartlett (Group Head of Tax, BP Plc)
Judith Freedman (Professor of Taxation Law and Director of Legal Research, Centre for Business Taxation, Oxford University)
Sir Launcelot Henderson (Judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice)
Lord Hoffmann (formerly Lord of Appeal, Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong)
Howard Nowlan (formerly Tax Partner at Slaughter and May, part time Judge of the First Tier Tax Tribunal)
John Tiley CBE (Emeritus Professor of the Law of Taxation, Director of the Centre for Tax Law, Cambridge University)
Jonathan Bremner, also a member of Pump Court Tax Chambers, has been appointed (along with Zoe Leung Hubbard of HMRC) as secretary to the committee.
Topics which the committee will look at include;
Consideration of existing experience with GAARs and other anti avoidance principles in other jurisdictions;
what a UK GAAR could usefully achieve; and what the basic approach of a GAAR should be.
For the HM Treasury’s full press release please click here