“ What we mean by non-sophisticated customers The purpose of the sophistication test was to identify those customers likely to be sophisticated. … The sophistication criteria are therefore a proxy for financial sophistication and were chosen on the basis that small businesses and businesses entering into transactions below a certain size were less likely to have understood the risks associated with IRHPs, and were are also less likely to have had the necessary resources to obtain independent expert advice before purchasing the product and, where appropriate, to bring legal proceedings on their own behalf.”
“264 UK property business A person's UK property business consists of— (a) every business which the person carries on for generating income from land in the United Kingdom, and (b) every transaction which the person enters into for that purpose otherwise than in the course of such a business .”
“353 Basic meaning of “ post-cessation receipt ” (1) In this Chapter “ post-cessation receipt ” means a sum— (a) which is received after a person permanently ceases to carry on a UK property business, and (b) which arises from the carrying on of the business before the cessation.”
“I start by formulating what I believe to be the relevant rule. Where, pursuant to a legal right, a trader receives from another person compensation for the trader's failure to receive a sum of money which, if it had been received, would have been credited to the amount of profits (if any) arising in any year from the trade carried on by him at the time when the compensation is so received, the compensation is to be treated for income tax purposes in the same way as that sum of money would have been treated if it had been received, instead of the compensation. The rule is applicable whatever the source of the legal right of the trader to recover the compensation. It may arise from a primary obligation under a contract, such as a contract of insurance, from a secondary obligation arising out of non-performance of a contract, such as a right to damages, either liquidated, as under the demurrage clause in a charterparty, or unliquidated, from an obligation to pay damages for tort, as in the present case, from a statutory obligation, or in any other way in which legal obligations arise. But the source of a legal right is relevant to the first problem involved in the application of the rule to the particular case, namely, to identify what the compensation was paid for. If the solution to the first problem is that the compensation was paid for the failure of the trader to receive a sum of money, the second problem involved is to decide whether, if that sum of money has been received by the trader, it would have been credited to the amount of profits (if any) arising in any year from the trade carried on by him at the date of receipt, that is, would have been what I shall call for brevity an income receipt of that trade. The source of the legal right to the compensation is irrelevant to the second problem. The method by which the compensation has been assessed in the particular case does not identify what it was paid for; it is no more than a factor which may assist in the solution of the problem of identification.”
“Mr. Vos says that these cases show that a legal right to compensation for the loss of a trade receipt gives rise to a payment which by definition arises out of the trade. He relied upon a statement to this effect by Diplock L.J. in London and Thames Haven Oil Wharves Ltd. v. Attwooll[1967] Ch. 772 , “Where, pursuant to a legal right, a trader receives from another person compensation for the trader's failure to receive a sum of money which, if it had been received, would have been credited to the amount of profits (if any) arising in any year from the trade carried on by him at the time when the compensation is so received, the compensation is to be treated for income tax purposes in the same way as that sum of money would have been treated if it had been received, instead of the compensation.”
“…the contention is that money awarded as damages for the detention of money is not interest and has not the quality of interest. … The appellant's contention is in … my opinion erroneous because the essence of interest is that it is a payment which becomes due because the creditor has not had his money at the due date. It may be regarded either as representing the profit he might have made if he had had the use of the money, or conversely the loss he suffered because he had not that use. The general idea is that he is entitled to compensation for the deprivation. From that point of view it would seem immaterial whether the money was due to him under a contract express or implied or a statute or whether the money was due for any other reason in law. In either case the money was due to him and was not paid, or in other words was withheld from him by the debtor after the time when payment should have been made, in breach of his legal rights, and interest was a compensation, … The essential quality of the claim for compensation is the same and the compensation is properly described as interest.”
“…there is for the purposes of this Act a disposal of assets by their owner where any capital sum is derived from assets notwithstanding that no asset is acquired by the person paying the capital sum, and this subsection applies in particular to— (a) capital sums received by way of compensation for any kind of damage or injury to assets or for the loss, destruction or dissipation of assets or for any depreciation or risk of depreciation of an asset,…”
“…it would in my view be inconsistent with the decision in O'Brien ( Inspector of Taxes ) v Benson's Hosiery ( Holdings ) Ltd to hold that a right to bring an action to seek to enforce a claim that was not frivolous or vexatious, which right could be turned to account by negotiating a compromise yielding a substantial capital sum, could not be an 'asset' within the meaning of that term in the capital gains tax legislation. I propose, for the sake of convenience, to refer to the right that the taxpayer company had, in that sense, to bring an action against the firm as its 'right to sue' the firm.”