Neil Forster, Ingenious chief executive, said in a statement issued today that “HMRC appears to be deliberately confusing the Ingenious case with proven tax avoidance schemes and making assertions which are factually wrong.”
HMRC last week claimed victories in two long running legal disputes over schemes involving artificially created losses, which had ensnared several high-profile entertainment and sporting figures and involved hundreds of millions of pounds in unpaid taxes and interest.
As a result of the two rulings in the cases, HMRC said it “has won two major tax avoidance battles against the Ingenious Film Partnership and Icebreaker avoidance schemes in cases worth more than £820m ($1.1bn, €968m) in tax owed and interest”.
Foster said: “The Ingenious investors received no more tax relief than the cash they invested. Furthermore, investors have incurred no legal costs in this fight, all of which have been paid for by Ingenious.”
“We are disappointed that the Tribunal has restricted tax relief on the costs of the films however believe that investors are better off as a result of this judgement than if they had accepted HMRC’s offer to settle four years ago, and considerably better off than the position HMRC attempted to argue for some years before the Tribunal which would have seen them receive no tax relief on their investment.”
He added: “It is important to note that as well as the restriction on loss relief the Tribunal also ruled that the tax on film income should be restricted, reducing the amount of tax payable by investors.
“We remain disappointed that the Tribunal decided to award film investors only partial loss relief and to restrict all loss relief for games investors. We are actively reviewing the judgement and considering an appeal to seek the maximum redress for our investors.”
