TAX NEWS: Love and peace, and the Consolidated Tax Fund. By Nichola Ross Martin
byA group of tax-paying pacifists, known as 'The Peace Seven', has failed to persuade the Court of Appeal that their human rights have been breached by the treasury's failure to separate their tax receipts from the general fund which is used, amongst other things, for military purposes.
The 'Seven', all concientious objectors, do not object to paying taxes, but want the treasury to set up a special fund, money from which could not be used for military purposes.
Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which relates to "Freedom of thought, conscience and religion says:
The First Protocol of Article 1 relates to the Protection of Property:
The pacifists were appealing against the High Court's decision not to permit a judicial review to test the whether the treasury's failure to establish a special fund or account use for non-military purposes only was lawful.
The Court of Appeal looked at the leading cases heard in the European Court of Justice on Article 9 in the context of general taxation and heard submissions from both parties.
HM Treasury accepted that pacifist beliefs were capable of falling within Article 9, while pointing out the qualified nature of the right to manifest beliefs, as compared to the absolute nature of the right to hold the beliefs. The raising of revenue by the imposition of general taxation is "neutral" from a religious or moral point of view. It is not sufficiently intimately linked to the manifestation of religious or philosophical belief to engage Article 9. Likewise, once tax is paid it goes into a Consolidated fund and loses its separate identity. The term military purposes is also very wide, it covers peace-keeping and protection functions amongst others.
The Treasury made five points to demonstrate that the proposal by the Seven was disproportionate and that the interference complained of justified.
The three judges unanimously agreed to disallow the appeal. The Seven can still take their complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the settled scope of Article 9.
Case: R (Boughton & Ors) v.HM Treasury [2006] EWCA Civ 504
Nichola Ross Martin