Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 section 81I

General anti-avoidance rule: commencement and transitional provision

Section 81I explains when the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) starts to apply and how it interacts with arrangements that were already in place before the GAAR came into force.

• The GAAR applies only to tax avoidance arrangements entered into on or after the date the GAAR provisions came into force.
• Pre-existing arrangements linked to a new tax avoidance arrangement are generally disregarded when assessing whether the new arrangement is artificial.
• However, if taking the earlier arrangements into account would actually help the taxpayer — by showing the new arrangement is not artificial — those earlier arrangements can be considered.
• This prevents taxpayers from relying on older arrangements to shield newer avoidance schemes from scrutiny under the GAAR.