One minute with Ashley Greenbank, Partner at Macfarlanes
How did you end up in tax?
I went to Freshfields as an articled clerk, and I thought I was going to be God’s gift to company law. After my corporate seat it was ‘suggested’ that I ought to do some tax – so I was a pressed man, but I’ve never looked back from there really.
Who in tax do you most admire?
I admire many people in the tax world. My first ‘mentor’ was Tim Ling at Freshfields. I’ve enjoyed working with people like Steve Edge at Slaughter and May and David Goy, one of the barristers we use. Malcolm Gammie is also one of my tax heroes.
What do you think to the way that tax law is made in the UK?
The current government’s attempts to rationalise the process have actually been very positive. Giving more time for legislation to be developed is a real improvement. There is still more that could be done in terms of making sure all of the relevant inputs from the interested parties are all taken into account before the parliamentary process, and improving scrutiny within the parliamentary process itself. But overall it’s a vast improvement on the previous process.
What did you think of the Budget?
A lot of politics and not much policy. On balance, I thought the message for business was reasonably encouraging. The further reduction in the corporation tax rate sends a positive message, particularly when combined with other measures such as finally sorting out of the CFC rules and the introduction of the Patent Box. The worrying piece was the threat of retrospective legislation for SDLT avoidance. A reputation for retrospective tax charges will not do the UK much good.
Where do you stand on the GAAR proposals?
If the question is whether we should we have a rule to outlaw contrived egregious tax planning, then you can’t but answer ‘yes’. But when you stand back, I’m not sure that we actually need a GAAR. The outcomes in the Ramsay line of cases have been generally favourable to HMRC anyway. The one case that the Aaronson report makes a lot of is the Mayes case, and that’s a very specific type of case on a very specific type of legislation – we don’t have an awful lot of that. If it’s really about deterrence, there may well be other and better ways of addressing the problem. Instinctively I’m against a GAAR because of the uncertainty it breeds, and the level of HMRC discretion that is inevitably involved. Whether or not the current proposal works will turn on whether all of the safeguards proposed by the Aaronson Report actually work to limit the scope of the GAAR, or whether over time there is ‘mission creep’.
If you could make one change to UK tax law, what would it be?
I’d repeal the debt cap; constantly trying to patch up something that didn’t work in the first place is a waste of intellectual effort. Aligning the base for national insurance and income tax would also be high on my list.
What could the UK tax authorities learn from their overseas counterparts?
I’d like a better and clearer ruling policy. I understand entirely that there are resource implications, but if you were asking for something that would help enormously then that would be it.
One minute with Ashley Greenbank, Partner at Macfarlanes
How did you end up in tax?
I went to Freshfields as an articled clerk, and I thought I was going to be God’s gift to company law. After my corporate seat it was ‘suggested’ that I ought to do some tax – so I was a pressed man, but I’ve never looked back from there really.
Who in tax do you most admire?
I admire many people in the tax world. My first ‘mentor’ was Tim Ling at Freshfields. I’ve enjoyed working with people like Steve Edge at Slaughter and May and David Goy, one of the barristers we use. Malcolm Gammie is also one of my tax heroes.
What do you think to the way that tax law is made in the UK?
The current government’s attempts to rationalise the process have actually been very positive. Giving more time for legislation to be developed is a real improvement. There is still more that could be done in terms of making sure all of the relevant inputs from the interested parties are all taken into account before the parliamentary process, and improving scrutiny within the parliamentary process itself. But overall it’s a vast improvement on the previous process.
What did you think of the Budget?
A lot of politics and not much policy. On balance, I thought the message for business was reasonably encouraging. The further reduction in the corporation tax rate sends a positive message, particularly when combined with other measures such as finally sorting out of the CFC rules and the introduction of the Patent Box. The worrying piece was the threat of retrospective legislation for SDLT avoidance. A reputation for retrospective tax charges will not do the UK much good.
Where do you stand on the GAAR proposals?
If the question is whether we should we have a rule to outlaw contrived egregious tax planning, then you can’t but answer ‘yes’. But when you stand back, I’m not sure that we actually need a GAAR. The outcomes in the Ramsay line of cases have been generally favourable to HMRC anyway. The one case that the Aaronson report makes a lot of is the Mayes case, and that’s a very specific type of case on a very specific type of legislation – we don’t have an awful lot of that. If it’s really about deterrence, there may well be other and better ways of addressing the problem. Instinctively I’m against a GAAR because of the uncertainty it breeds, and the level of HMRC discretion that is inevitably involved. Whether or not the current proposal works will turn on whether all of the safeguards proposed by the Aaronson Report actually work to limit the scope of the GAAR, or whether over time there is ‘mission creep’.
If you could make one change to UK tax law, what would it be?
I’d repeal the debt cap; constantly trying to patch up something that didn’t work in the first place is a waste of intellectual effort. Aligning the base for national insurance and income tax would also be high on my list.
What could the UK tax authorities learn from their overseas counterparts?
I’d like a better and clearer ruling policy. I understand entirely that there are resource implications, but if you were asking for something that would help enormously then that would be it.
