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Arctic Systems House of Lords decision date set

Published on Jul 23, 2007 |

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Following the recent Arctic Systems (Section 660) hearing at the House of Lords, the verdict is due to be delivered on Wednesday July 25th.

In this battle between Geoff and Diana Jones, and HMRC, this is the latest in a long line of hearings the couple have had to go through. The case has been heard by the Commissioners, the High Court and then Court of Appeal. When the Jones's finally won their Court of Appeal hearing, HMRC took the case to the House of Lords.

The case centres on a family-run business, Arctic Systems Ltd, which used dividends from the business to remunerate Geoff and Diana Jones, the shareholders.

Known as the "married couples business tax" in some circles, the outcome may affect how married couples renumerate themselves from their businesses. In the Arctic Systems case, both Mr and Mrs Jones extracted funds from the company in the form of dividends, even though Mrs Jones had less day-to-day involvement that her husband. Due to this fact, the Revenue argued that Mrs Jones' share of company profits should be taxed as if they were in the form of salary rather than as a shareholder dividend.

We will report the House of Lords decision on Wednesday.