No reason to stay appeal pending foreign arbitration decision

The taxpayer took part in a tax avoidance scheme involving a remuneration trust. In essence it would make contributions to the trust deducting them as business expenses. HMRC issued corporation tax closure notices on the ground the contributions were not deductible.

The taxpayer appealed. It said that the trust was void from the outset so it could not have made any contributions to the trust and the trust could not therefore have made any loans. Further there were arbitration proceedings underway in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) relating to the beneficial ownership of the assets in the void trust. It therefore sought a stay on the proceedings pending the outcome of the BVI litigation and permission to amend its grounds of appeal to reflect its view that the trust was void. HMRC objected and directed the taxpayer for ‘further and better particulars’ as to why...