Posted: 11 November 2008
Issue: Online only
Categories: News, Update, Overseas, Tax adviser, Legal, Residence & Domicile
Keywords: Grace

Special Commissioner overturned for first time in 100 years

The High Court has reversed the Special Commissioner's decision in the case of CRC v Grace.

It is the first time in 100 years that the court has overturned a Special Commissioner's ruling.

The case concerns Lyle Dicker Grace, a British Airways pilot who flies long-haul between the UK to South Africa and elsewhere. He has a home in Cape Town and is South African by birth, but he is a naturalised citizen of Britain.

Mr Grace was assessed to income tax for 1997-78 to 2002-03 on the grounds that during those years he was resident and ordinarily resident in this country.

He appealed against the assessment, claiming to have been non-resident during the period in dispute.

Special Commissioner Dr Nuala Brice allowed the appeal in January, holding that Mr Grace was neither resident nor ordinarily resident in the UK during the years of assessment.

HMRC then made an appeal of their own.

In the latest judgment, Mr Justice Lewison ruled that Dr Brice 'made errors of law in arriving at her decision', adding that 'the only possible conclusion from the primary facts found was that [Grace] was [resident in the UK]'.

This story will be covered in Taxation in greater detail next week. In the meantime, the cases put forward to the High Court by HMRC and Mr Grace are set out in this week's article Howzat? by Mike Truman and Charlene Choi.

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