This is an excellent new deal for us and an exciting new relationship. The location is outstanding; we are confident in the developer’s plans and believe the units will be very popular with buyers in the local market.
Five productions backed by Ingenious’ Ingenious Broadcasting service have been nominated in the 2016 British Academy Children’s Awards.
Clangers, an animated series following a family of aliens who live on a planet not far from earth, received two nominations; Best Pre-School Animation and Best Writer. The show is narrated by Michael Palin and airs on CBeebies. Ingenious’ Sarah & Duck is also nominated for Best Pre-School Animation.
High School entertainment show, So Awkward, received a nomination for Best Comedy Programme and both Topsy & Tim and Teletubbies have been nominated in the Best Pre-School Live Action category.
The ceremony will be held at the Roundhouse, London, on Sunday 20 November. See the full list of Nominees here.
The Supreme Court has today unanimously ruled that HMRC unlawfully disclosed confidential information in an “off the record” background briefing of the press.
Commenting on the judgement given by the Supreme Court, an Ingenious spokesperson said:
“We are delighted that the Supreme Court has unanimously found in our favour. This was never about restricting HMRC’s ability to collect taxes, nor was it about preventing the press from investigating public interest stories. Consistent with HMRC’s own guidelines, this was simply about upholding the basic legal principle that HMRC owe a duty of confidentiality to each and every tax payer and their affairs should not form the subject of “off the record” background briefings to the media.”
Background
The case involved an “off the record” background briefing of the press in June 2012 by the then Permanent Secretary of HMRC, Mr Hartnett, at which Mr Hartnett supplied confidential information to two journalists. The information disclosed was only tangentially related to the case before the First Tier Tax Tribunal and the film production partnerships which Ingenious operated. This briefing took place during the ordinary course of an enquiry into their film production partnerships and despite the fact that they had been entirely transparent with HMRC about the structure and operation of the film production partnerships and had engaged and cooperated with HMRC for many years in relation to the partnerships. The briefing took place before Ingenious had decided to commence legal proceedings at the First Tier Tax Tribunal.
HMRC sought to justify Mr Hartnett’s briefing on the basis that there was a general desire on the part of HMRC to foster good relations with the media and to publicise HMRC’s views regarding what they considered to be elaborate tax avoidance schemes.
However, the five judges of the Supreme Court unanimously decided that the arguments put forward by HMRC could not possibly justify a senior official, or any other official of HMRC, discussing the affairs of individual tax payers with journalists. Neither did the judges accept HMRC’s defence that because Mr Hartnett did not expect his comments to be reported that he was justified in making them. The judgement went on to say that the whole idea of HMRC officials supplying confidential information about individuals to the media on a non-attributable basis is, or should be, a matter of serious concern.
This landmark ruling is of wide spread public interest as it upholds the basic common law principle of confidentiality and in particular the duty of confidentiality which is owed by HMRC to individual tax payers.
For us, this case was not about preventing HMRC from undertaking their role as effectively as possible which is of course vitally important. Nor was it about seeking to restrict important public interest stories which investigative journalists can do brilliantly well. It was much simpler than that. In providing an “off the record” background briefing to the press, HMRC abused their power by ignoring both their own guidelines and their common law obligation to each and every tax payer to keep their personal financial affairs confidential.
Ingenious Real Estate is delighted to announce the closing of a £7.5m residential development facility to assist an experienced developer with the construction of 18 flats on a brown field site in Gerrards Cross, South Bucks.
Gerrards Cross is a small and affluent town, popular with professionals and families within easy reach of London Marylebone.
We have recently expanded our product range and are seeking new opportunities to deploy capital, with an in principal answer in 48 hrs, please give us a call on 020 7319 4253
Today marks the opening of the 2016 BFI London Film Festival, featuring six Ingenious-backed films including Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, which will open the festival.
A United Kingdom, starring David Oyelowo (Selma) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), will make history today as the first film with a black female director to open the London Film Festival. A United Kingdom received its global premiere at last month’s Toronto Film Festival and was heralded as ‘unmissable’ and ‘triumphant’.
The festival will also feature Autopsy of a Jane Doe starring Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox; City of Tiny Lights starring Riz Ahmed and Billie Piper; the critically acclaimed Dog Eat Dog starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Defoe; The Secret Scriptures starring Rooney Mara and Vanessa Redgrave; and Their Finest, starring Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy.
The films, all due for release within the next six months, showcase some of the finest British and American talent and were backed by Ingenious’ Shelley Media, Pathé, Pathé Plus and Senior Film funds.
Having received its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, USA, on Sunday 25 September, Ingenious film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has been praised as ‘breathtaking’ and ‘genius’ by The Times.
Based on Ransom Riggs’ bestseller and directed by Tim Burton, the film follows a lonely teen called Jake (Asa Butterfield) who, while grieving for his grandfather, stumbles into the magical world of Miss Peregrine (Eva Green). The mysterious half-bird, half-human runs a boarding school for supernatural children, or ‘peculiars’, on a remote island off the Welsh coast. As the peculiars take on the ‘forces of evil’, led by characters Barronand Ornothologist(played by Samuel L. Jackson and Rupert Everett) culminating in an epic battle in Blackpool, a beautiful romance blossoms between Jake and Emma (Ella Purnell), a peculiar who can manipulate air and will float away unless strapped into iron-clad platform sandals.
The film also stars Judi Dench, Chris O’Dowd and Terrence Stamp, and was released globally on 30 September 2016.
This week’s world premiere of Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom at the Toronto International Film Festival was met with critical acclaim from leading journalists, heralding the film as ‘unmissable’ and ‘triumphant’.
The Ingenious backed historical epic, starring David Oyelowo (Selma) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl), depicts the controversial marriage of Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana and British office worker Ruth Williams in the face of fierce international opposition. Having received a five star review from The Times, and four stars from The Guardian, the film will open the BFI London Film Festival on 5 October this year, the second consecutive year that an Ingenious backed film has opened the festival.
A United Kingdom is produced by Rick McCallum (Star Wars), David Oyelowo, Justin Moore-Lewy, Brunson Green (The Help) and Charlie Mason. Executive producers include Cameron McCracken (Pathé), Christine Langan (BBC Films), Ben Roberts (BFI), Eleanor Clark Windo (Ingenious Media) and Guy Hibbert.
Ingenious Real Estate is pleased to announce that we can now offer both Commercial Development Loans and Bridging Finance, in addition to our highly popular and successful Residential Development product.
Our updated product range can be found here and we are actively seeking opportunities across all of these asset classes. We would be delighted to discuss your deal on 0207 319 4253.
We are pleased to announce the recruitment of Howard Sefton as an Investment Director at Ingenious Real Estate. Howard brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the team and will support our ambitions to materially expand our loan book and market share.
Howard joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was working in the European Real Estate Credit Team. Prior to that Howard worked with RBS for 9 years as a specialist within various Real Estate finance roles.
Tom Brown, Head of Real Estate Finance said “We are delighted that Howard is joining at a time where we are increasing our product range, volumes and support to the market. His experience across all sectors will be of great benefit to our customers and professional partners”
Howard said “I am delighted to join Ingenious, who are an independent and creative Lender, who can find solutions for customers at a time where Real Estate Finance products are in high demand across the market”
Our new and updated product range can be found here and we are actively seeking opportunities across all of these asset classes. We would be delighted to discuss your deal on 020 7319 4253.
On Friday morning a press release from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) wrongly and deliberately grouped the Ingenious judgement at the First Tier Tax Tribunal together with a proven tax avoidance scheme called Icebreaker leading to a number of misrepresentations in the media. Ingenious now finds itself compelled to set the record straight.
On Tuesday last week, the Tribunal ruled that Ingenious’s film partnerships were trading and that that trade was conducted with a view to profit. This vindicates Ingenious’ position which it has repeatedly stated over the last 10 years, that its film partnerships were bona fide businesses run for a commercial profit.
In contrast, the Upper Tribunal on Friday upheld the decision of the First Tier Tribunal that the Icebreaker scheme was not conducting a trade with a view to profit and as such was set up for the sole purpose of avoiding tax, drawing a clear distinction with the Ingenious case.
The HMRC release also contained a number of false assertions that have since been reported in the media. Whilst these may apply to the Icebreaker scheme, in the Ingenious case these are entirely false. Ingenious would like to make the following clarifications on the record:
1. The Ingenious investors received no more tax relief than the cash they invested. Furthermore, investors have incurred no legal costs in this fight, all of which have been paid for by Ingenious.
2. Although part of the tax relief on film costs has been disallowed, a corresponding proportion of film income will no longer be taxed. In the case of all our partnerships, this will result in less taxable income being brought into account than would otherwise have been the case.
3. As a result we believe investors are better off now than if they had accepted HMRC’s offer to settle four years ago, and considerably better off than the position HMRC had attempted to argue at the Tribunal which would have seen them receive no tax relief on their investment.
Neil Forster, Ingenious CEO, said:
Notes to editors:
1. Founded in 1998 by Patrick McKenna, Ingenious has produced and co-financed hundreds of feature films and more than 550 hours of television programming with partners including 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Disney, Lionsgate, Film4, Pathé, the BBC, ITV and Endemol Shine.
2. Ingenious is a serial investor in the global creative economy, having raised and deployed more than £9 billion across the creative sector, as well as in real estate and infrastructure projects.
We are pleased to report that, contrary to some press coverage, the Tribunal has drawn a clear distinction between our film production partnerships and other film-related arrangements which have appeared before the courts over the last couple of years. In contrast with those cases, the Tribunal has found the Ingenious film partnerships to be trading and that those trades were conducted with a view to profit, although on a different basis to that which the partnerships argued before the Tribunal.
The argument that the partnerships were trading and were doing so with a view to profit is one which we have consistently maintained throughout both the enquiry process and litigation.
The purpose of this statement is to provide more detail about the Tribunal judgment. For investors and general readers alike, however, it should be clearly understood that, irrespective of this long-running and historic dispute with HMRC, the verdict of the Tribunal has no bearing whatsoever on any of our current business activities, whether they be EIS and Business Relief qualifying activities in media, or more widely in infrastructure and real estate.
The Tribunal concluded that none of the film partnerships were carrying on a trade with a view to profit on the bases argued by the partnerships. From our initial reading of the decision, this appears to be based on the Tribunal’s view that it was unrealistic, at the point of greenlighting (that is to say at the point of committing to produce each film), to hope that the films would be profitable. We strongly disagree, based upon the clear evidence that was presented to the Tribunal and the testimony of expert witnesses. The Tribunal itself concluded that there was at least a speculative hope of profit and that the films produced by the partnerships were capable of generating profits.
The Tribunal did however conclude that the partnerships were trading with a view to profit if production costs were restricted to 35% for Inside Track films and 30% for Ingenious Film Partners films, with taxable film income being restricted based on the same underlying principle – and that this approach to cost and income recognition should then form the basis for the preparation of the partnerships’ accounts.
We were therefore successful in pressing our case on a particularly important issue in front of the Tribunal, even though this success must be qualified in the manner described above.
In the case of Ingenious Games, we are extremely disappointed that the Tribunal concluded that the partnership was not trading and the partnership’s business was not conducted with a view to profit (on the basis that the partnership argued before the Tribunal). However, the partnership’s business was found to be conducted with a view to profit if game development costs were restricted to 30%, with taxable game income being restricted based on the same underlying principle. Again, we disagree.
In our opinion, certain of the Tribunal’s conclusions, as regards both our film partnerships and our games partnership, are based on a number of arbitrary and subjective interpretations and are unreasonable.
The broad impact of the adjustments made by the Tribunal is to reduce the trading losses allocated to investors and therefore reduce their ability to offset those losses against their tax liabilities in the relevant financial years. The precise impacts will take some time to process, given the volume of adjustments required on a film by film (or game by game), year by year basis. This process will also necessitate further discussion with HMRC, as directed by the Tribunal, which will inevitably take some time.
We are in the process of studying the detail of this very long and complex judgment (which runs to nearly 350 pages) and are actively considering the terms of an appeal. We have 56 days to start any appeal.
We will provide a more comprehensive update to investors once we have reviewed the fine detail of the judgment and determined the expected impact on partners’ tax returns, which will take several weeks.
