Increasing levels of M&A activity, continuing demand for advice from non-UK entities on how to structure their investments into UK businesses and commercial property, company reorganisations, and advising on the incorporation of large privately owned property portfolios as a result of the recent tax changes affecting individuals owning rental properties.
You’ve worked for HMRC in several advisory and policy roles. What advice would you give to the department?
When previously working for HMRC, I positively welcomed engagement with taxpayers and their agents, whether over the telephone or in face to face meetings. Meetings are usually a means of finding some common ground on which to progress matters. Over time, I think a number of HMRC departments and personnel have become somewhat entrenched in believing that the only form of effective communication is through written correspondence. Greater accessibility to caseworkers and more attempts at open dialogue between HMRC, taxpayers and their agents would make for a better and more collaborative future working relationship.
In addition, one perhaps minor point, which still seems to create much dissatisfaction, is HMRC’s failure to provide early confirmation of who a matter has been allocated to (where relevant) and when we, the agents, can expect to receive a response. Unfortunately, HMRC can sometimes be quick to criticise a failure to respond punctually, when its own previous conduct on the same matter has been anything other than satisfactory.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
There is no shame in taking or requesting more time to consider the facts of a particular matter. It’s also helpful to establish the context in which a query has arisen, and the purpose and effect of the taxation legislation most appropriate to the matter under consideration. Very early in my career, I felt concerned to give the impression that I was on top of my subject matter. I felt (wrongly) that this was best conveyed by giving an almost instantaneous answer to any tax queries posed by colleagues and clients alike!
Are there any new rules that are causing particular problems?
A number of my larger corporate clients are now subject to the requirement to publish a tax strategy every year. Their tax strategy must be published on the internet and must set out their approach to risk management and governance arrangements in relation to UK taxation. This includes their attitude to tax planning (so far as it affects UK taxation), their approach to dealings with HMRC, and the level of risk they are prepared to accept in relation to UK taxation.
As a result of this legislation, tax advisers to such corporates are likely to find themselves having to provide advice which not only conforms to the current UK tax avoidance regime but also with a corporate’s publishable attitude to tax and risk. This will in many cases result in advisers having to adopt the role of both external and internal adviser, ensuring that their tax advice does what it is intended to do but not so as to create issues around a corporate’s publishable tax strategy. However, this type of legislation, and the soon to be introduced enablers of tax avoidance schemes legislation, does provide an opportunity for tax advisers, particularly those advising corporates, to go beyond a purely advisory role. Instead, they can become involved in discussions around a corporate’s internal risk assessment function and its wider business objectives and structures.
And finally, you might not know this about me but…
I am happiest when on walking holidays with my wife in the Canary Islands. When not walking, I can usually be found thumbing my way through another James Patterson novel, or trying to improve my slow to grasp command of the Spanish language.
Increasing levels of M&A activity, continuing demand for advice from non-UK entities on how to structure their investments into UK businesses and commercial property, company reorganisations, and advising on the incorporation of large privately owned property portfolios as a result of the recent tax changes affecting individuals owning rental properties.
You’ve worked for HMRC in several advisory and policy roles. What advice would you give to the department?
When previously working for HMRC, I positively welcomed engagement with taxpayers and their agents, whether over the telephone or in face to face meetings. Meetings are usually a means of finding some common ground on which to progress matters. Over time, I think a number of HMRC departments and personnel have become somewhat entrenched in believing that the only form of effective communication is through written correspondence. Greater accessibility to caseworkers and more attempts at open dialogue between HMRC, taxpayers and their agents would make for a better and more collaborative future working relationship.
In addition, one perhaps minor point, which still seems to create much dissatisfaction, is HMRC’s failure to provide early confirmation of who a matter has been allocated to (where relevant) and when we, the agents, can expect to receive a response. Unfortunately, HMRC can sometimes be quick to criticise a failure to respond punctually, when its own previous conduct on the same matter has been anything other than satisfactory.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
There is no shame in taking or requesting more time to consider the facts of a particular matter. It’s also helpful to establish the context in which a query has arisen, and the purpose and effect of the taxation legislation most appropriate to the matter under consideration. Very early in my career, I felt concerned to give the impression that I was on top of my subject matter. I felt (wrongly) that this was best conveyed by giving an almost instantaneous answer to any tax queries posed by colleagues and clients alike!
Are there any new rules that are causing particular problems?
A number of my larger corporate clients are now subject to the requirement to publish a tax strategy every year. Their tax strategy must be published on the internet and must set out their approach to risk management and governance arrangements in relation to UK taxation. This includes their attitude to tax planning (so far as it affects UK taxation), their approach to dealings with HMRC, and the level of risk they are prepared to accept in relation to UK taxation.
As a result of this legislation, tax advisers to such corporates are likely to find themselves having to provide advice which not only conforms to the current UK tax avoidance regime but also with a corporate’s publishable attitude to tax and risk. This will in many cases result in advisers having to adopt the role of both external and internal adviser, ensuring that their tax advice does what it is intended to do but not so as to create issues around a corporate’s publishable tax strategy. However, this type of legislation, and the soon to be introduced enablers of tax avoidance schemes legislation, does provide an opportunity for tax advisers, particularly those advising corporates, to go beyond a purely advisory role. Instead, they can become involved in discussions around a corporate’s internal risk assessment function and its wider business objectives and structures.
And finally, you might not know this about me but…
I am happiest when on walking holidays with my wife in the Canary Islands. When not walking, I can usually be found thumbing my way through another James Patterson novel, or trying to improve my slow to grasp command of the Spanish language.
