Lexgreen Services Limited v The Commissioners for HMRC

Facts

The appellant, Lexgreen Services Limited, established a trust in 2005 whose trustees were resident in Jersey. In 2020 HMRC issued Lexgreen with a notice of determination fixing it with liability to inheritance tax in respect of a ten-year periodic charge arising on the trust under section 64 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984, and upheld that determination on statutory review. Lexgreen appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), where it was represented by leading counsel. By a short decision issued on 21 August 2025 the FTT dismissed the appeal, holding that the secondary liability of a settlor under section 201(1)(d) of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 — which attaches where the transfer is made during the life of the settlor and the trustees are non-resident — extends to a settlor which is a company, provided that company is a "live" company at the time of the relevant contribution to the trust; there being no suggestion that Lexgreen had ceased to be a live company between incorporation and the determination. The FTT granted permission to appeal on the sole ground that it had erred in law in applying section 201 to companies. Before the Upper Tribunal Lexgreen appeared by Mr Armstrong, one of its directors, who advanced its case differently and raised a substantive new argument. The facts themselves were not in dispute.