After BMBF

AFTER ALMOST A quarter of a century the true nature of the Ramsay principle continues to cause uncertainty in tax planning. Its initial conceptual incoherence ensures that attempts to wrest a consistent principle from the line of Ramsay cases require ingenuity of a high order. Until November of last year there were two main eras of Ramsay cases 'pre MacNiven v Westmoreland Investments [2001] STC 237' and 'post Westmoreland' but the decision of the House of Lords in BMBF provides a further authoritative review of a principle which is always ailing but never dies.
The case which started it all Ramsay 54 TC 101 concerned a tax avoidance scheme generating artificial capital losses. The creation of capital losses continues to be a staple of capital gains tax planning. How do such schemes stand in the light of the House of Lords' latest review of Ramsay in...