Finance Act 2020

65 Anti-avoidance

(1) Any tax advantage that would (apart from this section) arise from relevant avoidance arrangements is to be counteracted by the making of such adjustments as are just and reasonable.

(2) The adjustments (whether or not made by an officer of Revenue and Customs) may be made by way of an assessment, the modification of an assessment, amendment or disallowance of a claim, or otherwise.

(3) Arrangements are “relevant avoidance arrangements” if their main purpose, or one of their main purposes, is to enable a person to obtain a tax advantage.

(4) But arrangements are not “relevant avoidance arrangements” if the obtaining of any tax advantage that would (apart from this section) arise from them can reasonably be regarded as consistent with—

(a) any principles on which the provisions of this Part that are relevant to the arrangements are based (whether express or implied), and

(b) the policy objectives of those provisions.

(5) In this section—

• “arrangements” include any agreement, understanding, scheme, transaction or series of transactions (whether or not legally enforceable);

• “tax” means digital services tax (and “tax advantage” is to be construed accordingly);

• “tax advantage” includes—

  (a)

  avoidance or reduction of a charge to tax or an assessment to tax,

  (b)

  repayment or increased repayment of tax,

  (c)

  avoidance of a possible assessment to tax, and

  (d)

  deferral of a payment of tax or advancement of a repayment of tax.