After HMRC submits its additional information, the trustee will have 14 days to respond, after which the trial would be held.
The judge “indicated that the case had gone on for long enough, and should proceed to a full hearing without further ado, and instructed that this should occur as soon as is possible after May 17th 2011,” said Bethell Codrington, managing director of Panthera, who was present at last week’s High Court session.
By taking HMRC to court, Equity Trust is seeking to its ROSIIP scheme in Singapore reinstated.
Panthera, the promoter of ROSIIP, was established in 2000 as a joint venture between Equity Trust and Clariden Leu, a Credit Suisse subsidiary, and in 2006 looked to take advantage of then-new UK legislation that paved the way for the creation of QROPS. In Singapore, the scheme was known as the Panthera Recognised Overseas Self Invested International Pension (ROSIIP).
Codrington said that after more than three years, the case is "at last coming to trial" and the issues beginning to be resolved, “so that members of ROSIIP will be able to proceed in dealing with their pension benefits in the full knowledge of where they stand from a legal perspective”.
”Equity Trust has communicated this to its clients and will continue to inform them of progress” he added.
Equity Trust is seeking to have HMRC reinstate its ROSIIP scheme in Singapore.
All Singapore schemes removed
The case dates back to May 2008, when HMRC removed all Singapore QROPS from its list of approved schemes. In the ROSIIP case, HMRC has argued that it and all other Singapore schemes should meet what it calls “Condition A” of its QROPS requirements, rather than Condition B, which was the condition the ROSIIP scheme met.
Under Condition A, the scheme needs to be registered in the country where it is situated. Condition B stipulates that if the scheme is not approved or registered in that country, then it must ensure that at least 70% of the fund is available to provide an income for the individual’s life in retirement.
HMRC has yet to restore approval to any of the schemes it struck off in 2008, or to give QROPS approval to any other Singapore-based trust in the almost three years since it brought the shutters down on Singapore’s QROPS industry, at that point barely two years old.
After being unable to come to an agreement with HMRC over the matter, Equity Trust last year took the UK tax authority to court, and in August, won a key legal battle, and was awarded costs. However, HMRC chose not to appeal, thus forcing the case to go to trial.
Last year it was announced that Panthera was handling the marketing for one of the first Maltese QROPS to be approved by HMRC. Administration of that entity – the Melita International Retirement Scheme – is being handled by Custom House Global Fund Services.
