Revenue granted partial costs of case stated where both parties were partially successful

Costs of proceedings – appeal by way of case stated from the Tax Appeals Commission – appeal of assessment raised by Revenue to give effect to its refusal of the appellant's right to loss of relief in respect of certain dividend transactions – TAC found that the appellant was not carrying a trade in financial instruments and securities through involvement in syndicates – did not establish that dividend transactions were carried out in the course of his trade – section 812 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 did not apply to deem the dividend income to be that of a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, rather that of the appellant – Court held with Revenue on the trading issue and with the appellant on the section 812 issue – held in favour of Revenue on the expression of doubt issue – case background and trading issue took up four and a half days of the case – section 812 issue took over a day – expression of doubt issue was dealt with in less than half a day total – argued Revenue were only partially successful – both parties partially successful – cannot be said that the s.812 issue did not go to the heart of the issues in the case – issue raised by Revenue – issue materially added to the length of the hearing – in reality little was relevant to the other issues in the case – not disposed to exercise discretion to award full costs to Revenue – costs in the order of three and a half days in favour of Revenue – costs for the one and a half days it took to present the s.812 issue ordered in favour of the appellant – apply straightforward set off - order that Revenue recover two days of its costs in the action – order that Revenue recover costs of the first and second set of written submission – appellant recover the costs of the third set of written submissions – stay on the order for costs.