IEIM721030 - Promoter

A promoter is an intermediary who designs and markets a CRS Arrangement or Opaque Offshore Structure . A promoter will almost invariably have a full understanding of the material aspects of the arrangement. This is because in order to effectively carry out the activities of a promoter, the intermediary will need to fully understand the material aspects of the arrangement. It follows that a person involved in a CRS Arrangement or Opaque Offshore Structure but without knowledge of those material aspects is unlikely to be a promoter and will normally be a service provider instead. Of course, if a person is wilfully ignorant of certain aspects of the arrangement, in order to try to avoid being a ‘promoter’ HMRC would still consider that such a person was a promoter.

For example, consider a person who advertises an arrangement to potential customers. The person is aware that in order to realise the potential tax benefits of the arrangement, the customer must be tax resident in the UK, and must be an employee, but has no detailed knowledge of how the tax benefit is realised, what legislation it relies on, or any of the more detailed conditions that a person may need to meet in order to achieve the outcome. Although it may appear that such a person could be a promoter, the reality is that they are providing assistance in respect of the marketing of the arrangement. This person would therefore be an intermediary as they fall within the service provider part of the definition of “intermediary”.

This would be in contrast to a person who, in the same role, has full knowledge of the details of the arrangement, how it works, the specifics of how the tax benefits are realised and the necessary conditions that have to be met in order to achieve this. A person in this position is clearly marketing the arrangement, rather than providing assistance in respect of the marketing of the arrangement, and so would fall within the promoter part of the definition of “intermediary”.

For details of the reporting obligations of a promoter see IEIM740010.