HMRC did not act unlawfully in disclosing information to journalists
The disclosure made to the journalists was that HMRC did not accept that the Appellants’ film schemes generated the tax reliefs claimed and that HMRC was going to challenge their validity. Mr. Hartnett acknowledged that he was aware of Patrick McKenna, the founder of Ingenious. Mr. Hartnett said that he thought that HMRC would be ultimately successful in defeating film schemes. This was information of HMRC’s own creation, not information given to it by taxpayers or by the Appellants in this case. Following the disclosure, various comments made by Mr. Hartnett were published in The Times, albeit attributed only to a “senior Revenue official”, in apparent breach of Mr. Hartnett’s understanding that they would not be published at all.
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Court of Appeal: jurisdiction to order discretionary trust disclosure
The case concerned a freezing order under which the defendant had to inform the claimants of his assets. The defendant disclosed that he was a discretionary beneficiary under certain named trusts, but did not give further details of the trusts. The defendant applied for an order discharging the freezing order unless the claimants gave an unlimited cross-undertaking fortified by an appropriate payment into a bank account in England to be held to the order of the court.
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EU: Somalia, Central African Republic and Belarus sanctions updated
On 3 March 2015 HM Treasury published notices regarding updated EU sanctions against Somalia, the Central African Republic and Belarus. Following the UN Security Council’s delisting of Mohamed Sa’id on 19 December 2014 from its sanctions in respect of Somalia, Sa’id was also removed from the EU sanctions list against the country. Following the UN
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Investment trusts can recover some unlawful paid VAT from HMRC
On 12 February 2015 the Court of Appeal gave judgment in Investment Trust Companies (in liquidation) v Commissioners for HMRC. This was an appeal from Henderson J’s two previous judgments in this matter. In brief, the Court of Appeal has held that: (1) Investment Trust Companies (“ITCs”) can recover from HMRC, by way of restitution, the amount of the VAT actually paid to HMRC by their managers (the “75s”) in the “dead period”. (2) ITCs cannot however recover from HMRC the amount of any input tax set against the manager’s VAT liability in any period (the “25s”). Instead, ITCs would have to bring separate claims against their managers for these amounts.
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New CPRs in force on 27 February 2015
The Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2015 were published on 26 February 2015 and came into force on 27 February 2015. They amend the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 for the purpose of implementing certain provisions of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015.
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US Treasury sanctions against Africa-based Hezbollah support network
On 26 February 2015 the US Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it had placed a number of individuals alleged to be connected with Hezbollah on its sanctions list.
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No disclosure of letters of request: Administrative Court
The letters of request concerned fraud proceedings against a number of Nigerian defendants. The US had obtained a prohibition order (under Part 4A of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (External Requests and Orders) Order 2005/3184) freezing assets in the UK belonging to the defendants. The defendants applied for disclosure of the letters and argued that the letters lay at the heart of the NCA application; without them the application could not have been pursued at all, and they were therefore disclosable under CPR 31.14.
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Important Commercial Court guidance on length of pleadings
On 20 February 2015 the Commercial Court (Leggatt J) emphasised the need for concise documents for the court and the correct nature and content of statements of case. The case concerned allegations that the defendants conspired to induce the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate the claimants on a false basis by making statements to the SFO which the defendants did not believe to be true.
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EU-Ukraine Association Agenda – Council Decision proposal
On 20 February 2015 the EU Council issued a joint proposal for a Decision on the EU position regarding an EU-Ukraine Association Agenda. The proposal sets out a list of priorities for the implementation of the 2014 EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The draft Association Agenda is annexed to the proposed Decision.
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Commercial Court: Argentine debt fund subject to English law
On 13 February 2015 the Commercial Court (Richards J) granted the claimants (who were investment funds interested in euro-denominated debt securities issued by Argentina) a declaration that €225 million interest due on debt securities was subject to a trust governed by English law.
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