29 February 2024

Sharon Clipperton and Steven Lloyd v HMRC – Court of Appeal

This appeal concerned a scheme designed to enable a company to distribute funds to shareholders and avoid any charge to income tax.  Both the First-tier and Upper Tribunal concluded that the scheme failed, and the Court of Appeal upheld that result.  The judgment contains a detailed analysis of the application of the Ramsay principle in the context of the provisions for taxing distributions, and addresses the interaction of that analysis with the settlements code.

Laura Poots acted for HMRC, led by Aparna Nathan KC.

A copy of the judgment can be found here.