Judgment in Anston Investments Ltd v HMRC (Anston Investments Limited v The Commissioners for HMRC - Find Case Law - The National Archives) was handed down on 30 March 2026.
It's an interesting case on the potential disqualification of corporate gift aid relief in cases where the charitable donations are conditional on an acquisition of property by the charity from the donor company (or an associated person) or otherwise "associated with" or "part of an arrangement involving" such an acquisition. In this case, the potentially disqualifying acquisition was of company shares from an associated person.
In a lengthy decision the First-tier Tax Tribunal sided with the taxpayer, and allowed relief on the donations - primarily on the basis that the acquisition of company shares by the charity (and arrangements in respect of deferred consideration payable for those shares) was not causally connected to the relevant charitable donations (which had been made to the charity both before and after the transfer of the company shares). Put simply, the donations were neither paid as part of any "arrangement" for the acquisition of the shares by the charity, nor were they "associated" with that share acquisition - and so were not disqualified from relief.
The decision is also notable for this more general comment from the Tribunal judge (para 62) on fairness, justice and policy: "I do not really understand why [HMRC] have chosen to challenge the deductibility of donations which did not involve tax avoidance and have so clearly been used exclusively to benefit the charitable sector."
Our content explained
Every piece of content we create is correct on the date it’s published but please don’t rely on it as legal advice. If you’d like to speak to us about your own legal requirements, please contact one of our expert lawyers.