Peter Vaines’ article was published on 6 March in the Tax Journal and you can read it here. As Mr Vaines sets out in his article, there are many variations on the Motive Test but it appears to be a truth universally acknowledged that all are fiendishly hard to invoke, as recent decisions have shown. However confirmation of the reasoning in the Brebner case is a welcome dose of common sense; as is Mr Vaines’ Fourth Newtonian Law that “any course of action necessarily involves the rejection of other courses of action and their consequences”. This is a difficult and evolving area of jurisprudence and this article is one to bookmark and return to again and again.
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