Routier & anr v HMRC [2020] WTLR 281
Spring 2020 #178C died in 2007 in Jersey, leaving her residuary estate on trust (the trust) for purposes that were agreed to have been exclusively charitable under English law. C directed in her will that the proper law of the trust was the law of Jersey. The appellants, who were domiciled in Jersey, were appointed to be C’s executors and the trustees of the trust. C’s estate included assets in the United Kingdom amounting to £1.7m. In 2010 the appellants retired as trustees (but not as executors) and were replaced by a UK resident trustee. C’s will was then amended so as to make the proper law of the T...
Matchmove v Dowding & anr [2016] EWCA Civ 1233
March 2017 #167The appellant appealed a decision regarding the enforceability of an agreement to sell a piece of land through proprietary estoppel and constructive trust notwithstanding the absence of a written contract.
F, a property developer, was the moving spirit of the appellant (M). In 2002, F began negotiations with G for the purchase of a plot of land (the land) and a meadow (the meadow). F intended to divide the land into two plots. Plot 1 and plot 2 would be sold separately. G did not want to sell until he had planning permission, which was granted in 2003.
By late 2003, a ‘comm...
Ben Nevis (Holdings) Ltd & anr v HMRC [2013] EWCA Civ 578
January/February 2014 #136David King, a South African businessman, is the owner of Ben Nevis, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Following various hearings and appeals, Ben Nevis was found liable to the Commissioner for the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS) for taxes of Rand 2.6bn (approximately £222m) for the 1998, 1999 and 2000 tax years. In March 2011 judgment was entered against Ben Nevis in South Africa for this sum.
SARS alleged that Mr King transferred Ben Nevis’ assets to Metlinka Trading Ltd when he learned of the tax investigations and £7.8m was credited to a London ba...