Gaines-Cooper loses appeal on UK domicile
British businessman Robert Gaines-Cooper has lost his appeal against a decision by the UK tax courts over his status as domiciled in the Seychelles rather than in the UK.
Last November, the Special Commissioners found that Gaines-Cooper had not given up his status as a UK domicile because he continued to maintain links with the UK, including retaining various properties.
Gaines-Cooper, whose own father had been an Inland Revenue tax inspector, had been appealing against tax demands from 1992 to 2004, having moved to the Seychelles in the 1970s after deciding that the UK tax regime was not conducive to entrepreneurship.
He argued that he was a legitimate tax exile despite his British citizenship, a number of homes in the UK, a fondness for English country pursuits and attendance of Royal Ascot, but judges sided with the taxman.
The case was of keen interest to so-called "Monaco millionaires", who live outside the UK but jet in to the country for 90 days a year to carry out business.
But the appeal dealt solely with Gaines-Cooper's domicile status and did not focus on the time he spent residing in the UK, which had been a key part of the earlier case.
The decision may be good however for UK-resident non-domiciles, because it may help to prove that they were not domiciled in the UK.
Delicious
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Newsvine
Digg