A milkman has helped a property owner win a £1m capital gains tax case against HMRC. London based Gary Ives bought and sold three properties and HMRC tried to charge him just under £1million in tax and penalties. They claimed that he was a property developer and the profits were therefore chargeable to capital gains tax. However, Ives challenged this on the basis that he had lived in the properties and therefore was exempt from paying the tax under the "Principle Private Residence" rule. One of his witnesses was his milkman, who gave evidence that he had delivered milk to all three properties to help prove that he was actually living there. But HMRC's evidence was also to blame for them losing the case; the tribunal criticising it as "inadequately and carelessly assembled". 

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