Readers’ forum: Taxation of employee benefit trust arrangements

I have been reading the report of Marlborough Ltd (TC8246) (see tinyurl.com/594dyax9). This seems to suggest that in an employee benefit trust arrangement (EBT) for an owner-managed business the amounts contributed to the trust are taxable as distributions and not employment income. I still have clients with open EBT enquiries in similar situations although not involving exactly the same structure as in that case. Is there any mileage in running arguments based on Marlborough in my cases particularly as HMRC would be out of time to assess the individuals on the dividend income?

I suspect that the answer is no but I would still be interested in readers’ views. 

Query 19 863 – Optimist.

Do the client’s trust arrangements mirror those in the Marlborough case?

The case of Marlborough DP Ltd (TC8246) looked at loans made by a remuneration trust which had been set up by...