One minute with Ben Fryer, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
I am fortunate and grateful to have an interesting and varied practice, covering a range of structuring, transactional and tax advisory matters for a fantastic array of clients. In particular, I have been kept busy for some time advising on the structuring and ongoing expansion of a private equity-backed European data centre platform, which has been very rewarding as I have been able to witness at first hand my client’s business grow from strength to strength.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
That there is no shame in asking lots of questions. I very much view this as a key part of a tax adviser’s role and I try to impress the point on those starting out in the profession. There are very rarely ‘stupid’ questions – having the courage to speak up if something is unclear very often elicits some crucial piece of information that can unlock a particular issue.
In addition, I have come to appreciate that the most effective tax advisers have an ability to distil a huge amount of analysis and information into the most concise form that is possible. Of course, it’s often the case in our work that there is no easy answer. But I have frequently found that if you can’t explain your conclusions in a paragraph or two, it may be the case that you don’t understand the issues well enough, or there is still work to do to strengthen the argument.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
The various cases on the unallowable purpose rules (BlackRock, Kwik-Fit, JTI) have been widely trailed and the subject of a lot of interesting analysis in recent editions of Tax Journal, but the evolution of the jurisprudence in this area has been genuinely fascinating to observe. Whilst certain themes and clarifying principles can be extrapolated from the Court of Appeal judgments in all of these cases, areas of uncertainty remain. These cases do, however, all underline the importance of assessing the commercial rationale of lending structures at an early stage and having sound and contemporaneous supporting documents.
What are clients currently asking about?
Of course, the general election is looming large, and the combination of announced changes to the ‘non-dom’ rules and (should they win the necessary majority) the Labour Party’s anticipated changes to carried interest taxation have many in the asset management sector considering their options. It is of course premature to advise on all aspects with certainty and we remain hopeful that any changes will be measured, but some clients have started to develop contingency plans for the relocation of certain individuals should legislative developments go against them, which obviously requires a detailed ‘compare and contrast’/‘pros and cons’ analysis against other suitable jurisdictions.
A topic which continues to occupy a lot of advisory time is tax substance of entities in cross-border investment structures (even before implementation of the much discussed ATAD 3). The approach of certain tax authorities in Europe has become aggressive to say the least, even where considerable operational substance has been built up in the relevant holding company jurisdiction, which is leading to a reappraisal of investment structures in those jurisdictions (including looking at the possibility of direct investment by qualifying fund vehicles).
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
Having been an avid boxing fan for many years, I finally took the plunge and started boxing lessons about a year and a half ago, with the active encouragement of my wife (no doubt with some vicarious enjoyment from me being punched in the face...). I’m training for my first bout in a few weeks.
One minute with Ben Fryer, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
I am fortunate and grateful to have an interesting and varied practice, covering a range of structuring, transactional and tax advisory matters for a fantastic array of clients. In particular, I have been kept busy for some time advising on the structuring and ongoing expansion of a private equity-backed European data centre platform, which has been very rewarding as I have been able to witness at first hand my client’s business grow from strength to strength.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
That there is no shame in asking lots of questions. I very much view this as a key part of a tax adviser’s role and I try to impress the point on those starting out in the profession. There are very rarely ‘stupid’ questions – having the courage to speak up if something is unclear very often elicits some crucial piece of information that can unlock a particular issue.
In addition, I have come to appreciate that the most effective tax advisers have an ability to distil a huge amount of analysis and information into the most concise form that is possible. Of course, it’s often the case in our work that there is no easy answer. But I have frequently found that if you can’t explain your conclusions in a paragraph or two, it may be the case that you don’t understand the issues well enough, or there is still work to do to strengthen the argument.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
The various cases on the unallowable purpose rules (BlackRock, Kwik-Fit, JTI) have been widely trailed and the subject of a lot of interesting analysis in recent editions of Tax Journal, but the evolution of the jurisprudence in this area has been genuinely fascinating to observe. Whilst certain themes and clarifying principles can be extrapolated from the Court of Appeal judgments in all of these cases, areas of uncertainty remain. These cases do, however, all underline the importance of assessing the commercial rationale of lending structures at an early stage and having sound and contemporaneous supporting documents.
What are clients currently asking about?
Of course, the general election is looming large, and the combination of announced changes to the ‘non-dom’ rules and (should they win the necessary majority) the Labour Party’s anticipated changes to carried interest taxation have many in the asset management sector considering their options. It is of course premature to advise on all aspects with certainty and we remain hopeful that any changes will be measured, but some clients have started to develop contingency plans for the relocation of certain individuals should legislative developments go against them, which obviously requires a detailed ‘compare and contrast’/‘pros and cons’ analysis against other suitable jurisdictions.
A topic which continues to occupy a lot of advisory time is tax substance of entities in cross-border investment structures (even before implementation of the much discussed ATAD 3). The approach of certain tax authorities in Europe has become aggressive to say the least, even where considerable operational substance has been built up in the relevant holding company jurisdiction, which is leading to a reappraisal of investment structures in those jurisdictions (including looking at the possibility of direct investment by qualifying fund vehicles).
Finally, you might not know this about me but…
Having been an avid boxing fan for many years, I finally took the plunge and started boxing lessons about a year and a half ago, with the active encouragement of my wife (no doubt with some vicarious enjoyment from me being punched in the face...). I’m training for my first bout in a few weeks.
