One minute with David Pickstone, head of tax litigation, Stewarts Law
You recently joined Stewarts Law as head of the firm’s tax litigation department. What direction do you see yourself taking the team in your first year in the role?
The team is very much focused on complex, high value cases which have moved beyond investigations to litigation, particularly on those which are likely to go to trial. Many tax disputes practices focus on the investigations side of things, which is not our specialism. This also means acting in a significant amount of tax related commercial litigation, as well as the more usual disputes with HMRC.
Aside from your immediate colleagues, whom in tax do you most admire?
I struggle to choose between Sir Alan Moses (Lord Justice Moses, until recently) and Mr Justice Henderson. As Henderson J was picked in a previous edition, I will go with Moses – a fantastic (and fearsome) judge who wouldn’t tolerate any nonsense. I always looked forward to our hearings before him, though that might have been different had I been the advocate rather than the solicitor!
What advice would you give to someone new to the profession?
It is a cliché, but the devil is in the detail. Tax legislation is massive, complicated and changes regularly. It often isn’t logical (at least on its face). If you enjoy researching a complex point all the way to its conclusion, then you will enjoy practising in tax. If you don’t, do something else.
If you could make one change to UK tax law or practice, what would it be?
I would put a long stop deadline on HMRC to conclude enquiries (of, say, six years) and amend the accelerated payment notice (APN) legislation so that one can only be issued after the enquiry has been concluded. There are genuine reasons why some enquiries need to be kept open, but in most cases, six years is more than enough. Once the six years are up, HMRC could apply to the tribunal for an extension. I am sure it would need greater resources to speed things along and collect any unpaid tax (especially on old avoidance cases); but lack of government resources shouldn’t be an excuse for leaving taxpayers in a long period of uncertainty. Using APNs on unconcluded enquiries is not the solution; they solve the cash flow issue for HMRC, but exacerbate the uncertainty for the taxpayer.
You have a very broad range of experience in contentious tax, acting for a variety of clients. Comment on a key challenge you’ve faced in practice.
It is always a challenge to make sure that your advice is pitched at the right level for your audience. It is very easy to fall into jargon and technicalities and lose sight of the commercial issues which underpin a tax dispute. Some clients are fascinated by technical tax issues and expect a line by line analysis on each and every point. Others simply want to know the bottom line. Because tax affects every company and every individual, you can expect a huge mix of characters. That is a great part of the job, but also a challenging one.
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
My wife recently gave birth to our son, George. So I am happiest spending time with them, in my back garden with the sun shining, preferably having had a good night’s sleep. There are some challenges to that at the moment, both from George and from the great British weather.
One minute with David Pickstone, head of tax litigation, Stewarts Law
You recently joined Stewarts Law as head of the firm’s tax litigation department. What direction do you see yourself taking the team in your first year in the role?
The team is very much focused on complex, high value cases which have moved beyond investigations to litigation, particularly on those which are likely to go to trial. Many tax disputes practices focus on the investigations side of things, which is not our specialism. This also means acting in a significant amount of tax related commercial litigation, as well as the more usual disputes with HMRC.
Aside from your immediate colleagues, whom in tax do you most admire?
I struggle to choose between Sir Alan Moses (Lord Justice Moses, until recently) and Mr Justice Henderson. As Henderson J was picked in a previous edition, I will go with Moses – a fantastic (and fearsome) judge who wouldn’t tolerate any nonsense. I always looked forward to our hearings before him, though that might have been different had I been the advocate rather than the solicitor!
What advice would you give to someone new to the profession?
It is a cliché, but the devil is in the detail. Tax legislation is massive, complicated and changes regularly. It often isn’t logical (at least on its face). If you enjoy researching a complex point all the way to its conclusion, then you will enjoy practising in tax. If you don’t, do something else.
If you could make one change to UK tax law or practice, what would it be?
I would put a long stop deadline on HMRC to conclude enquiries (of, say, six years) and amend the accelerated payment notice (APN) legislation so that one can only be issued after the enquiry has been concluded. There are genuine reasons why some enquiries need to be kept open, but in most cases, six years is more than enough. Once the six years are up, HMRC could apply to the tribunal for an extension. I am sure it would need greater resources to speed things along and collect any unpaid tax (especially on old avoidance cases); but lack of government resources shouldn’t be an excuse for leaving taxpayers in a long period of uncertainty. Using APNs on unconcluded enquiries is not the solution; they solve the cash flow issue for HMRC, but exacerbate the uncertainty for the taxpayer.
You have a very broad range of experience in contentious tax, acting for a variety of clients. Comment on a key challenge you’ve faced in practice.
It is always a challenge to make sure that your advice is pitched at the right level for your audience. It is very easy to fall into jargon and technicalities and lose sight of the commercial issues which underpin a tax dispute. Some clients are fascinated by technical tax issues and expect a line by line analysis on each and every point. Others simply want to know the bottom line. Because tax affects every company and every individual, you can expect a huge mix of characters. That is a great part of the job, but also a challenging one.
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
My wife recently gave birth to our son, George. So I am happiest spending time with them, in my back garden with the sun shining, preferably having had a good night’s sleep. There are some challenges to that at the moment, both from George and from the great British weather.
