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Issue:
4893
/
Categories:
Comment & Analysis
, employee benefit trusts
, IHTA 1984
, mistake
, tax avoidance
, Avoidance
It was a mistake
Key points
- Bhaur concerned a tax avoidance scheme involving the establishment of an employee benefit trust.
- A key takeaway of the case is that the English courts remain receptive to claims to set aside voluntary transactions on grounds of mistake.
- In Pitt v Holt Lord Walker considered the question of whether there were some types of mistake about tax that should not attract equitable relief.
- The Court of Appeal held that the Bhaur family had made a deliberate decision to implement the scheme knowing that there was a risk that it might fail to achieve the desired tax benefits and that it may be successfully challenged by HMRC.
- The court agreed with Lord Walker’s observations in Pitt v Holt that artificial tax avoidance is a social evil.
The recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Bhaur and others v Equity First Trustees (Nevis) Ltd and others [2023]...
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