Shareholders were not the transferors of assets

The Fishers established a betting business which from 1988 was run through a UK company SJA Ltd. The Fishers held the shares in SJA and acted as directors of the company. The Fishers decided to transfer their betting operations to Gibraltar. They initially set up a branch of SJA in Gibraltar and later incorporated a new company in Gibraltar SJG.

In 2000 SJA and SJG entered into an agreement transferring the whole of SJA’s business (other than its betting shops in the UK) to SJG. At the time of the transfer the shareholdings in each of SJA and SJG were held entirely by the Fishers in varying proportions. HMRC issued assessments to tax to each the three UK-resident members of the Fisher family on the basis that there had been a transfer of assets abroad (TA 1988 s 739).

The First-tier Tribunal found mainly in...