In Frederick Henderson & Ors v HMRC [2017] TC06010 the domicile of four children was considered by virtue of their father's and grandfather's domicile of choice and origin.
If you hold non-UK domiciled (non-dom) status you can have considerable tax advantages compared to a UK domiciled individual.
Essentially, there are four types of domicile:
- Dependency, origin, choice or deemed (which from 6 April 2017 applies to IT and CGT, not just IHT), see Non-domicile status & tax.
The four appellants were the children of Nicholas Henderson, his father Ian Henderson, moved to Brazil, rented a property and married a Brazilian in 1961.
- Nicholas was born in Brazil on 3 May 1963.
- In November 1966 the Hendersons moved to the UK and remained there since.
- They spoke Portuguese at home, Nicholas often worked abroad, visiting Brazil on his gap year.
- Nicholas made an error in his written evidence: he got his own wife's UK domicile wrong.
- Nicholas wife’s family trust acquired a property in Chelsea Harbour for Nicholas and his family to live in.
- The children were born in the UK and claimed to be non-UK domiciled.
The First Tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) held that Ian did not acquire a domicile of choice in Brazil, therefore Nicholas’ domicile of origin was in the UK, and his children were domiciled in the UK.
Comment
The evidence was not good, and it looks like a hopeless case: it woud have been more interesting if family had lived in Brazil until the children were 16, or if the parents were unmarried when Nicholas was born. The judgment does though give a useful summary of the law on domicile.
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