Global

Details

  • Service: Tax, International Corporate Tax, Global Indirect Tax, Global Compliance Management Services
  • Type: Regulatory update
  • Date: 11/30/2012

United Kingdom - Intra-group debts not considered loan relationships 

November 29: The UK Court of Appeal this week issued a decision concerning whether certain intra-group debts were loan relationships. MJP Media Services Ltd v. Commissioners for HMRC, No. A3/2011/2831 (UK Ct. App. 28 November 2012)

Read the decision


The taxpayer’s appeal was dismissed, confirming the decision of the First Tier and Upper Tribunals that intra-group debts were not loan relationships based on the evidence presented.

KPMG observation

The decision refers a number of times to the lack of evidence from those directly involved in the transactions, and this appears to be a relevant factor in the decision.


The taxpayer asserted that a bilateral “loan” agreement between the parties entered into some time after the transactions had been entered into, which resulted in intra-group debts, gave rise to a new loan and a new loan relationship. Tax professionals in the UK have expressed an opinion that the judgment suggests this argument might have succeeded; it is described as being “more promising.” However, it was determined that this was an entirely new argument that had not been raised at the First Tier Tribunal, and could not be considered before the Court of Appeal.


One implication of this case is that when reliance is placed on a debt being a loan relationship, contemporaneous evidence ought to be retained that there was a cash payment between the parties or, if a group company makes payments on behalf of another group, contemporaneous documentation ought to be prepared as evidence that there was a loan.


Read a November 2012 report [PDF 130 KB] prepared by the KPMG member firm in the United Kingdom: Weekly Tax Matters (30 November 2012)


Also covered in the KPMG report are the following items:


  • Policy paper on reinvigorating workplace pensions
  • VAT - Advocate General opinion in Commission v. Ireland
  • RTI penalties update



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