TAX NEWS: Goodwill hunting. By Nichola Ross Martin

I think its necessary to bear in mind here that there were some very special individual circumstances here as well as the bare facts of the case. Peter Boizot who founded Pizza Express in 1965 didn't run a classic "pay me £500,000 and buy my franchise" operation. To allow the chain to grow, certainly in the early days he allowed waiters and managers he liked and trusted to expand the chain by acquiring the franchises - even in the case of the later franchisees in the case who were not necessarily known to PB in the same way they had worked for a period in a PE before buying into the franchise.

Pizza Express also earned a very loyal following for each branch as they were quirkerly different from each other whilst sharing similar menus and this was often an influence of the franchisee - my wife and I favoured the PE in Porchester Rd Bayswater over other branches which were nearer to where we live in North London because it was a franchised branch we liked - and I'm in the early days (65 to 80) m any customers would say the same.

This case arose when PB wanted to retire and allowed a takeover by a city consortium who's plans for the chain were very different and led to the plan to buy back the existing franchises to allow more a classic franchise operation to be developed.

I'm not personally involved with PE or PB in any way othger than as a loyal customer who watched the development of the brand over the years - PB published a book - the Pizza Express Cookbook - which includes a section on the early days of the chain.

Having read the Commissioners comments I feel that this was a significant factor in the approach adopted here so the case may not be the challenge to the revenue's view so much as the exception that proves the rule.

article that explains the basics of goodwill, certainly in relation to CGT, and also should act as a warning to us to analyse the fundementals of each case and avoid falling in with HMRC's perceived wisdom as given in their manuals. This also applies to other areas where we may be tempted to lean too heavily towards their interpretation.