Implications of the Court of Appeal decision in CRC v Fisher

On 6 October 2021 the latest chapter in the transfer of assets abroad (TOAA) saga of HMRC v Fisher (tinyurl.com/cafisheroct) took place when the Court of Appeal judgment was handed down. Prior to this the case had been heard before the First-tier Tribunal in 2014 and the Upper Tribunal in 2020.

This article considers the Court of Appeal judgment itself (summarised in Table 2) how it differs from the earlier judgments in the case (summarised in Table 1) and how other cases might be differentiated from Fisher.

Background

The case relates to Stephen Fisher Anne Fisher and their son Peter Fisher. The transaction in question was the March 2000 sale and transfer of the business operations of Stan James (Abington) Ltd a UK company to Stan James Gibraltar Limited (the entire business being transferred with the exception of 12 shops).

The...