Nicholas Ogden v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

Facts

The Appellant, Nicholas Ogden, has been resident in Jersey since 1988 and was employed by WorldPay, a company he had founded, through its Jersey entity, holding no UK bank accounts. In 2001 RBS launched a hostile takeover of WorldPay, which the board was forced to accept in early 2002. Around the same time the Appellant's son Richard was admitted to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge for a heart and lung transplant, his only chance of survival. From August 2002 the Appellant took leave to be with his son, having telephoned the Cambridge tax office and been told that if he did not exceed ninety working days, his other days would fall under a compassionate visit dispensation. His son died on 13 October 2002, and on returning to work the Appellant was dismissed; although a termination agreement was signed, RBS withheld 22% purportedly for tax despite having no contractual right to do so. By letter dated 16 July 2004 HMRC opened an enquiry into the Appellant's self-assessment return for the year ending 5 April 2003, which had shown him as resident but not ordinarily resident. Finding that he had spent more than 183 days in the UK, HMRC amended the return to treat him as resident and ordinarily resident, increasing the tax due by £224,512.22. The Appellant appealed on 27 January 2005.