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Robert Gaines-Cooper plans to appeal against the latest judgment in his long-running residence case, Taxation has learned.
The businessman, who has a home in the Seychelles, yesterday had his application for judicial review dismissed by the Court of Appeal, after he sought to be treated as non-resident on the basis of the HMRC practice set out in the IR20 booklet.
During the hearing in November, the Revenue argued that it was not bound by IR20, which was merely guidance giving rise to no legitimate expectation on the part of the taxpayer. The court confirmed the importance of such practices and said HMRC were in fact bound by the terms of the booklet.
However, the judges believed that Mr Gaines-Cooper did not satisfy IR20 because he had not made a distinct break when he left the UK in 1976. The court agreed with the taxman that a distinct break is necessarily implied by the booklet even though this is not found within its terms.
The taxpayer is now seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
He had previously been found by the Special Commissioners to be both a resident and domicile of the UK.
An appeal against the decision on the matter of domicile was rejected by the High Court, and leave to appeal was refused. The issue of residence was successfully pursued by a judicial review application, which resulted in the right to appeal being granted.
Further background on the case can be found on this site's residence status library page. Detailed analysis of Gaines-Cooper will appear in a future issue of Taxation.
