Unauthorised loans

Payments from registered pension scheme

M was the sole shareholder of the taxpayer AIM (Perth) Ltd. He was also the sole member of the company pension fund. The taxpayer became the scheme administrator in May 2008 but all financial matters were handled by an in-house accountant.

The taxpayer banked with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which held a floating charge over all of the taxpayer’s assets. In 2010 RBS said the previously agreed level of return on the cash deposits of the pension fund would not be honoured. M said he would use the fund to help with working capital. As a result all the pension funds were transferred in two tranches to the taxpayer’s bank account with RBS. There was no documentation for the funds to be treated as loans. No interest was paid but it was accrued in the accounts.

In September 2012 ...