Apportioning trust expenses between income and capital

摘要

One of the central challenges faced by a trustee is frequently the balance he or she must strike between the interests of income and capital beneficiaries. This case concerned the treatment of certain expenses incurred by a United Kingdom resident discretionary trust, which the trustees had charged to income in the year 2000–01, but HMRC alleged should all have been charged to capital. It goes some way to providing clarification for trustees as to how expenses should be treated, and what evidence the courts will require to justify the treatment adopted.