In keeping with Government’s general targeting of tax avoidance schemes, a complex deal aiming to avoid Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) failed to succeed in an appeal by Project Blue at the Upper Tribunal on Friday 19 December 2014, resulting in the Qatari owners of the Chelsea Barracks site in London having to pay £38 million.
It is further reported that as a result of this decision 24 separate tax avoidance schemes will now be liable for a total of £85 million in stamp duty. The Government is understood to have brought in £23.9 billion last year from HMRC’s compliance activity.
