Tag: Synthetic transfer
UK vs. Ladbroke Group, February 2017, case nr. UT/2016/0012 & 0013
Tax avoidance scheme. Use of total return swap over shares in subsidiary to create a deemed creditor relationship. Value of shares depressed by novating liability for large loans to subsidiary. The scheme used by Ladbroke UK involved a total return swap and a novation of loans to extract reserves. Used to achieve a “synthetic transfer†of the JBB business to LB&G. In essence, this involved extracting the surplus which had accumulated in LGI and transferring it to LB&G prior to an actual sale of the JBB business to LB&G. The normal way to extract such reserves would be by a dividend payment. The Court ruled, that it is sufficient for the application of paragraph 13 (UK GAAR) that the relevant person has an unallowable purpose. Where the unallowable purpose is to secure a tax advantage for another person, HMRC do not have to show that the other person has in fact obtained a tax advantage, if the other person has been prevented from obtaining a tax advantage by the operation of paragraph 13. It would be impossible to construe paragraph 13 in that way where the relevant person intended to obtain a tax advantage for 40 itself, and there is nothing in the wording to indicate a different result where it intends to obtain a tax advantage for another ...