Telegraph Piece - Family Businesses face Tax Crackdown

[moorfield]

Eek - have we done this one already?

Family businesses face tax crackdown - Telegraph

Family businesses face a crackdown on their tax affairs following a successful HM Revenue & Customs case where a couple were caught by income splitting rules because they paid dividends into a joint bank account.

[Wanderer]

Eek - have we done this one already?

Family businesses face tax crackdown - Telegraph Family businesses face a crackdown on their tax affairs following a successful HM Revenue & Customs case where a couple were caught by income splitting rules because they paid dividends into a joint bank account.

Successful? Here are a few other headlines about the Patmore case:

Patmore v HMRC s660a settlements caseThe First-Tier tribunal found in favour of a couple who faced tax assessments of nearly £20,000 on dividends that HMRC claimed were paid as part of a settlement under s660a.

So who's right and who's wrong?

In any case, the Patmore case doesn't really matter to the vast majority of the filthy income splitter contractors out there because the share structure is different to Patmore. In a fact most income splitting contractors have a structure the same as another big case called "Arctic Systems" which HMRC lost too. I think it would be difficult for HMRC to bring a case against a family business if they were a carbon copy of Arctic Systems where a precedent has been set.

I don't really understand what the Telegraph are on about. Is this just FUD spreading? People are getting sick and tired of this - it's either legal or it's not. How can HMRC "crack down" on a trading structure which is entirely legal?