The Court of Appeal held that there was no requirement for income tax to be avoided for the ‘transfer of assets abroad’ rules to apply, and that those rules were not incompatible with EU law in any relevant way.

Two of the three taxpayers (SF and AF) were resident and ordinarily resident in the UK. The third (PF) ceased to be UK resident in 2004. They were members of a family with a betting business run through a UK company (SJA). The business of SJA was transferred to a company in Gibraltar (SJG) in March 2000. The taxpayers were shareholders and/or directors of both companies.