Law Report: CASE SUMMARIES: 15 DECEMBER 1997
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Your support makes all the difference.The following notes of judgments were prepared by the reporters of the All England Law Reports.
Extradition
R v Governor of Brixton Prison & anr ex p Quentin; QBD (Div Ct) (Simon Brown LJ, Ognall J) 27 Oct 1997.
When remanding under s 9(5) of the Extradition Act 1989 a person who had been arrested pursuant to a provisional warrant issued under s 8(1)(b) of that Act, a magistrate was not limited by the 40-day time limit specified in art 16.4 of Sch 1 of the European Convention on Extradition Order 1990, since that time limit only applied to the period within which a request for extradition had to be received by the Home Secretary. Although a magistrate had to take the 40-day time limit into account when considering a further remand, s 9(6) did not direct that the court could not exceed that period.
John Hardy (Tuckers) for the applicant; Clare Montgomery QC (CPS) for the respondents.
Income tax
Inland Revenue Commissioners v Botnar; ChD (Evans-Lombe J) 19 November 1997.
A Liechtenstein trust, which expressly excluded the taxpayer from any benefit, also gave power to the trustees to transfer the trust property to another settlement, and the transferred property was not to be held on the terms of the original settlement. The taxpayer thus potentially had "power to enjoy" the income of shares held in a new settlement, and was accordingly liable to tax under s 739 of the Taxes Act 1988, intended to prevent the avoidance of income tax by the transfer of assets abroad.
James Munby QC, Christopher Tidmarsh (Inland Revenue Solicitor) for the Commissioners; the taxpayer did not appear and was not represented.
VAT
Comissioners of Customs & Excise v Civil Service Motoring Association; CA (Hobhouse, Pill, Mummery LJJ) 25 November 1997.
Arrangements were made by an association with a financial institution for a credit card to be available to its members on favourable terms. Commission paid to the association referable to the credit transactions of the card holders fell within the exemption for "negotiation of credit" provided by art 13B(1) of the Sixth VAT Directive 77/388, which was implemented by Group 5, item 2 of Sch 9 to the Value Added Tax 1994.
Kenneth Parker QC (C&E Solicitor) for the Commissioners; David Milne QC and Julie Anderson (Crockers) for the association.
Stamp duty
Parinv (Hatfield) Ltd v IRC; CA (Millett, Roch LJJ, Sir John Vinelott) 4 Dec 1997.
Ad valorem stamp duty on a conveyance on sale of property in the UK could not be avoided by the execution outside the UK of a contract for sale and a declaration of trust passing the equitable interest in the property to the purchaser, and then pre- sentation for stamping of a transfer which mentioned no consideration.
Patrick Soares (Gouldens) for the taxpayer; Michael Furness (Inland Revenue Solicitor) for the Commissioners.
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