Loan was an unauthorised employer payment

The taxpayer was the administrator of a registered pension scheme known as the NDRA. The scheme made a loan of £37 500 to the sponsoring employer. The loan was secured by a floating charge. The company repaid the loan in full by two instalments in March and November 2018.

In March 2019 HMRC issued the taxpayer with a scheme sanction charge of £15 000 (FA 2004 s 239) on the basis that the loan was an unauthorised employer payment within the meaning of FA 2004 s 160(4)(a).

The taxpayer appealed.

The First-tier Tribunal considered first whether the loan was an unauthorised employer payment or whether it was an authorised employer loan as defined by FA 2004 s 179(1). This depended on whether the charge had to have been registered at Companies House under CA 2006 s 859A in order to be an authorised employer loan. The...