One minute with Jonathan Hickman, corporate and M&A focused tax partner at BDO.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
I work with a variety of clients, so lots of different things are keeping me busy. The complexity of the UK tax system means you have to work constantly just to be certain you are fully compliant. Despite the pressures of the outside world, my clients continue to run their businesses effectively – I work a lot with leisure and hospitality businesses that have had more than their fair share of issues and are now starting to have to deal with HMRC’s CJRS enquiries. I do hope HMRC focuses on those who deliberately abused those reliefs, rather than those who may have been caught out by the nuances.
In the last year, I have taken on the lead partner role for our Southampton tax team – a great experience but a busy time getting to know the team and their clients. We are really positive about the future.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
I have always found the revenue versus capital concept one that seems to make the system far more complicated than it needs to be, particularly for those businesses that rely on investing in longer term assets. While the question as to whether something may qualify for capital allowances or not and then at what rate has given us in the profession some interesting tax case law and precedent, it all seems a little too more involved than it needs to be to me. The real test should be whether something has been spent for business purposes or not and if so, you should be able to claim a standardised deduction. The amount of tinkering with the capital allowances regime over the last few years seems to support my view.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I joined the profession straight after sixth form, trading a university place for a taste of the ‘real world’, so you wouldn’t be too far out if you said I knew very little at the start of my career. What I have learnt is that you can achieve a lot if you work hard, have an interest in what you do and you get the right experiences along the way. I used to think that all solutions had to minimise tax, but I know now that it is about paying the correct amount in the context of what your client is trying to achieve. And I never knew carbon paper would become a thing of the past!
Over my 35-year career to date, there has clearly been a shift in power toward HMRC when it comes to tax avoidance and in a lot of cases that’s quite right too. You only have to look at the recent result in Good v HMRC [2023] EWCA Civ 114 to see that the courts will look above the economics to what is seen as the just result – as well as being denied the reliefs the scheme promised, Mr Good ended up paying tax on income he never received. I’m still staggered at the fact that these cases continue to be lined up and the length of time it takes to reach conclusion. My advice would be if you have been involved in avoidance schemes, get it sorted out before you are the next on the list for the tax tribunal.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem?
It’s not exactly new but I am seeing the anti-hybrid rules continue to cause unforeseen UK tax issues, particularly for inward investment groups and for US parented groups where the common ‘check the box’ elections, that might not always be visible to UK management, need to be fully understood in the context of this UK legislation.
More recently, as I have alluded to above, it is the process the taxpayer needs to go through to determine the level of capital allowances due and the subtle change to the corporate tax payments regime that can accelerate the tax payments, particularly for private equity backed businesses where, for these purposes, your client might find itself with a few associated companies it didn’t know it had.
You might not know this about me but...
While I am not a fanatical cyclist, I do have a bicycle for every occasion (five to date). I also enjoy reading about travel and I have just read One man and his bike – a true and funny story about a journalist who travels the coast of the UK on his trusty cycle. Maybe one day when I’m done with tax...
One minute with Jonathan Hickman, corporate and M&A focused tax partner at BDO.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
I work with a variety of clients, so lots of different things are keeping me busy. The complexity of the UK tax system means you have to work constantly just to be certain you are fully compliant. Despite the pressures of the outside world, my clients continue to run their businesses effectively – I work a lot with leisure and hospitality businesses that have had more than their fair share of issues and are now starting to have to deal with HMRC’s CJRS enquiries. I do hope HMRC focuses on those who deliberately abused those reliefs, rather than those who may have been caught out by the nuances.
In the last year, I have taken on the lead partner role for our Southampton tax team – a great experience but a busy time getting to know the team and their clients. We are really positive about the future.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
I have always found the revenue versus capital concept one that seems to make the system far more complicated than it needs to be, particularly for those businesses that rely on investing in longer term assets. While the question as to whether something may qualify for capital allowances or not and then at what rate has given us in the profession some interesting tax case law and precedent, it all seems a little too more involved than it needs to be to me. The real test should be whether something has been spent for business purposes or not and if so, you should be able to claim a standardised deduction. The amount of tinkering with the capital allowances regime over the last few years seems to support my view.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I joined the profession straight after sixth form, trading a university place for a taste of the ‘real world’, so you wouldn’t be too far out if you said I knew very little at the start of my career. What I have learnt is that you can achieve a lot if you work hard, have an interest in what you do and you get the right experiences along the way. I used to think that all solutions had to minimise tax, but I know now that it is about paying the correct amount in the context of what your client is trying to achieve. And I never knew carbon paper would become a thing of the past!
Over my 35-year career to date, there has clearly been a shift in power toward HMRC when it comes to tax avoidance and in a lot of cases that’s quite right too. You only have to look at the recent result in Good v HMRC [2023] EWCA Civ 114 to see that the courts will look above the economics to what is seen as the just result – as well as being denied the reliefs the scheme promised, Mr Good ended up paying tax on income he never received. I’m still staggered at the fact that these cases continue to be lined up and the length of time it takes to reach conclusion. My advice would be if you have been involved in avoidance schemes, get it sorted out before you are the next on the list for the tax tribunal.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem?
It’s not exactly new but I am seeing the anti-hybrid rules continue to cause unforeseen UK tax issues, particularly for inward investment groups and for US parented groups where the common ‘check the box’ elections, that might not always be visible to UK management, need to be fully understood in the context of this UK legislation.
More recently, as I have alluded to above, it is the process the taxpayer needs to go through to determine the level of capital allowances due and the subtle change to the corporate tax payments regime that can accelerate the tax payments, particularly for private equity backed businesses where, for these purposes, your client might find itself with a few associated companies it didn’t know it had.
You might not know this about me but...
While I am not a fanatical cyclist, I do have a bicycle for every occasion (five to date). I also enjoy reading about travel and I have just read One man and his bike – a true and funny story about a journalist who travels the coast of the UK on his trusty cycle. Maybe one day when I’m done with tax...
