“ that a large charge to UK tax, in the region of 45 per cent, arose on the sum which is the subject of the agreement,” the judge said. HMRC had asked the court not to withdraw the agreement.īut the company claimed that had it received the correct advice it would not have paid the lump sum and would have instead made a gradual series of payments – not all of which would have been taxable in the UK. “The claimant is entitled to the relief that it seeks.” “I consider that the agreement was entered into because of the mistake, which was a causative mistake of sufficient gravity, and which it would be unconscionable to leave uncorrected,” he said. Judge Jarman said the mistake was of “sufficient gravity” that it needed to be corrected and upheld the firm’s application. JTC Employer Solution Trustees brought a case on behalf of the Inmarsat Employment Company Pension Plan to see the agreement cancelled and to retrieve the £6m. The mistake related to the timing of his application for a tax-domicile certificate and the payment of the lump sum. When he and the pension trust investigated the issue, they discovered the advice they had received in making the agreement to pay a lump sum had been incorrect, London's High Court heard. It led to the UK's tax authority, HMRC, seeking for Mr Khadem to pay 45 per cent tax, plus interest on the tax, on the £6m lump sum as he was no longer a permanent UAE resident.
However, when he returned to the UK in March 2020 to visit his wife, he ended up stranded there as borders closed in response to the pandemic. The couple decided to move to the UAE, where Mr Khadem's wife would join him when she retired from her roles as a consultant at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and as a professor at University College London.īefore leaving the UK, Mr Khadem's company pension trust signed an agreement to give him his £6 million ($8m) pension as a lump sum as he was due to become a UAE resident, believing it would not be liable to tax. Their three adult children each have families and resided in Canada, UAE and London. Ramin Khadem, 75, retired to the UAE to be near his daughter in 2018 after working for decades as a chief finance officer for telecom and satellite infrastructure firm Inmarsat in London.Īs he approached his mid-70s, and his wife approached her retirement, they discussed where they should live. Getty ImagesĪ former satellite executive has fought off an attempt by the British taxman to seize almost £3 million from his pension.īut his dreams of retiring to the UAE with a £6m lump sum have been dashed in the process. Ramin Khadem fell foul of UK tax rules after Covid-19 border closures left him in the UK for months. © MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images
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