UBS and Deutsche Bank tax cases: HMRC wins in Supreme Court
24 March 2016
Recently the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the UBS and Deutsche Bank bonus tax avoidance cases. After the banks had succeeded in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court decided that in fact a “purposive interpretation” of the legislation meant that the schemes failed. HMRC therefore won and millions of pounds of PAYE and NIC will have to be paid. However the case is most interesting for the approach the Supreme Court takes. It shows the extent to which the courts are sometimes prepared to go in interpreting the legislation in such a way that tax avoidance schemes will not succeed. Lewis Silkin tax expert Matthew Rowbotham wrote about the case for the April 2016 issue of PLC Magazine.
Recently the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the UBS and Deutsche Bank bonus tax avoidance cases. After the banks had succeeded in the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court decided that in fact a “purposive interpretation” of the legislation meant that the schemes failed. HMRC therefore won and millions of pounds of PAYE and NIC will have to be paid. However the case is most interesting for the approach the Supreme Court takes. It shows the extent to which the courts are sometimes prepared to go in interpreting the legislation in such a way that tax avoidance schemes will not succeed.
Lewis Silkin tax expert Matthew Rowbotham wrote about the case for the April 2016 issue of PLC Magazine.
You can view a PDF of the full article here.