User:Portseven/BN66

= BN66 Introduction =

BN66 is the common name for Section 58 of the UK Finance Act 2008, specifically targeting Tax Avoidance schemes that make the use of Offshore Trusts and Double Taxation Treaties to reduce the Tax paid by the scheme user.

It retrospectively amended an Act of Parliament from 1987 (Padmore), making it appear as though the scheme had never been lawful. The Government claimed that Section 58 was merely a “clarification” of the 1987 Act. In July 2002, they issued a Technical Exchange (Issue 63) advising tax offices that they were aware of several hundred people intending to use the scheme, but the legislation to target the scheme was not brought in till 2008.

BN66 is unusual in the fact that the Tax loophole that made this scheme legal, was not only closed down prospectively but also applied with retrospective effect, so that people who had been using the scheme for the past 7 years found themselves facing large Tax bills due to this retrospective tax.

A number of cases, from various legal angles, have been brought against HMRC contesting the retrospective nature of BN66 (note that these cases are still ongoing).


 * Montpelier
 * Steed / KPMG
 * PWC
 * A wealth management company that has teamed up with KPMG and Ernst & Young

The UK Government's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has also expressed its concern over the retrospective nature of BN66 and that no adequate justification for such retrospection had been provided.

External References

 * Judgement on first hearing of the Montpelier Case -
 * Debate of the Finance Act 2008 -
 * Link to the JCHR report -