Claim for foreign service relief on a termination payment

In January 2012 the taxpayer entered into an employment contract with Afferro Mining. In December 2013 his employment ended and he received a termination payment of nearly £1.46m He claimed the first £30 000 was exempt under ITEPA 2003 s 403 and that £252 923 was exempt under s 414 (foreign service relief).

The issue was whether the taxpayer was ordinarily resident in the UK between 1 February 2007 and 5 April 2010 – the relevant period. If he was foreign service relief would not be available.

The taxpayer claimed that from 2007 he spent about 70% of his time working outside the UK and that he was based in Portugal. However the First-tier Tribunal said the evidence did not support this. He bought an annual rail season ticket in October 2007 from which it could be inferred that he commuted regularly to London...