Taxman ain’t afraid of no ghost

This must have happened before, so TS apologises for the repetition.

Julian Ghosh, the Pump court tax barrister who represented Cadbury Schweppes in its case against the taxman over its use of a complicated loan that would turn income into capital, has a name that is not necessarily obvious how to spell.

In the course of delivering its verdict on the case, the High Court described Mr Ghosh as Mr Ghost. Spooky. How did the mistake creep in, one wonders? A gremlin (or ghoul) must have crept into the judge’s computer.

The mistake appears once, and then literally disappears into thin air. Either way, it didn’t scare off the taxman, who won the case.

Ghosh has been a particular thorn in the side of the taxman, having represented Cadbury in its freedom of establishment case, which threatens to limit the scope of UK anti-avoidance rules on companies set up in UK tax havens.

Who ya gonna call, HMRC?