City bonus case grouped
Hundreds of cases concerning tax avoidance on City bonuses are being considered centrally by HM Revenue & Customs
HMRC is seeking to recover hundreds of millions of pounds in tax from
employee benefit trusts, used by investment banks and companies to reduce tax on
employee benefits.
When HMRC considers an issue is widespread or has common features, the cases
are dealt with by a centralised committee.
Eric Williams of Grant Thornton said the cases had been collected ‘around six
to nine months ago’ and that the Revenue would now be discussing points of
contention with key tax advisers.
HMRC recently won a key tax case on the issue against Dextra, part of the
Caudwell Group.
There are believed to be several other types of trusts the Revenue is keen to
clamp down on.