Conservative and Unionist Central Office v Burrell
The Conservative Party was not an unincorporated association, because there was no contract between its members, so it was not liable to corporation tax as an association.
Facts
The Inland Revenue claimed that the Conservative Party was an unincorporated association, so it was liable to corporation tax on its income. The party argued that it was not an unincorporated association, because there was no contract binding its members together, and no rules governing the control of its funds.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the party was not an unincorporated association. Lawton LJ defined an unincorporated association as two or more persons bound together for one or more common purposes, not being business purposes, by mutual undertakings, each having mutual duties and obligations, in an organisation which has rules which identify in whom control of it and its funds rests, and upon what terms, and which can be joined or left at will. The Conservative Party did not satisfy this definition. Gifts to the party took effect as gifts to the treasurer, under a mandate to use them for the party's purposes.
Related cases on purpose trusts and unincorporated associations
- Re Astor's Settlement Trusts [1952] Ch 534
- Re Bucks Constabulary Widows' and Orphans' Fund Friendly Society (No 2) [1979] 1 WLR 936
- Re Dean (1889) 41 Ch D 552
- Re Denley's Trust Deed [1969] 1 Ch 373
- Re Endacott [1960] Ch 232
- Re Grant's Will Trusts [1980] 1 WLR 360
- Hanchett-Stamford v Attorney General [2008] EWHC 330 (Ch), [2009] Ch 173
- Re Hooper [1932] 1 Ch 38
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