High Court Dismisses Appeal in Domicile Case
Just about a year ago there was much media coverage to the Special Commissioners case of Robert Gaines-Cooper v Revenue & Customs Commissioners which highlighted the question of whether days of arrival and departure should be included when calculating whether someone is resident in the UK for tax purposes. In that particular case the Revenue said that these days should be included but subsequently announced that in most cases they would not include them. However it was announced in the Pre-Budget report that, from April next year, the rules will be changed and days of arrival and departure will be counted in future.
What was often overlooked was that the Gaines-Cooper case was primarily about the question of domicile rather than residence. Mr Gaines-Cooper decided to appeal against the decision and took the case to the High Court and last week Mr Justice Lewison handed down his decision . The case was taken on the premise that the Special Commissioner had erred on point of law in deciding that Mr Gaines-Cooper had acquired a domicile of choice in the Seychelles. The Judge found, after reviewing the Special Commissioners’ findings that it is
"impossible to say that the only true and reasonable conclusion was that Mr Gaines-Cooper acquired a domicile of choice in the Seychelles in 1976."
As such the Special Commissioners had not erred in law and the appeal was dismissed.
It has been announced that Mr Gaines-Cooper is seeking leave to take the case to the Court of Appeal. He is also seeking leave for judicial review on the residence question -Watch this space.
His position will not be helped by another Special Commissioners’ case decided recently.
In the case of Lee Barrett v HMRC it was held that Mr Barrett had not sufficiently broken his links with the UK to be considered not resident in the UK. This is a cautionary tale which shows that it is essential that documentary evidence such as airline tickets / boarding passes etc should be retained when trying to establish that you have left the UK. Amongst other things, the Revenue were able to establish from bank statements, that Mr Barrett had made withdrawals from UK cash machines some days after he claimed to have left the UK. It should be remembered also that mobile ’phone records, which are available to the Revenue, can be used to establish your location at any particular time.
