One minute with Jonathan Shankland, partner and head of international private wealth at Weightmans.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Where do I start? Having had a manic period dealing with the registration of overseas entities in January, I have since had a number of very interesting matters – from providing the tax and structuring advice for a top 10 global US charity establishing itself in the UK, to advising two clients on the tax and estate planning for the sale of their healthcare business for £300m to private equity. The team has also been very busy in the continued integration following our exciting merger between RadcliffesLeBrasseur & Weightmans in mid-2022.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
Build your network. The biggest, most complex and interesting clients bring with them the most challenging spread of assets, estates and differing tax considerations. In order to give the best advice, you need a broad and talented network of advisers internationally that you know well.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem?
The increased compliance for compliance sake that has come into the tax and structuring world in recent years: common reporting standard, registers of beneficial ownership (i.e. the trust registration service) and the various machinations across the world. Anti-money laundering and prevention of tax evasion are, of course, critical issues. However, we now find ourselves with a collection of onerous requirements across multiple jurisdictions, with varying levels of commitment and understanding from governments, advisers, enforcement agencies and clients alike.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
Apologies for the self-indulgence but it was an interesting one! We advised an international client transiting through the UK who had a £1m designer watch confiscated by Border Force and was subjected to the restitution provisions being forced upon him and to cough up import VAT at £200k! We challenged Border Force’s interpretation of the law and application of import VAT in the tax tribunal and through appeal to the magistrates court (two pronged appeal). The matter is unreported as we settled, with all of the tax levied returned, plus significant costs awarded to our client. All clients passing through international borders should be forewarned as to potential issues at border control with high value items.
What are clients currently asking about?
It is hard to look beyond the most topical tax issue for many people in the UK at the moment: the taxation of non-domiciled individuals. This has been a political hot potato for a decade and we have seen increasing moves since 2012 to extend the UK tax net outside of geographical boundaries (ATED 2012, non-resident CGT 2015 and 2019 changes to remittance and domicile rules under FA 2017).
Many of my clients are considering their interests and presence in the UK, and indeed their future investments here. If we were to see a change to the remittance basis of taxation and/or further punitive measures that seek to treat international clients in exactly the same manner as individuals of UK origin, my fear is that this will be massively to the detriment of UK Plc. I would hope that if there were to be a change to the remittance basis of taxation, any new regime would still allow the UK to compete with leading EU nations and incentivise international individuals to come to the UK and bring their expertise, businesses and wealth.
And finally, you might not know this about me but...
Being a born and bred Welshman, I have played a good level of Rugby for many years. Playing for Pontypool in South Wales and then a number of historic clubs in England, culminating with London Welsh before I retired in 2018. I am now a board director with London Welsh and Head of Legal & Commercial for the Richmond based club, where I can be found most Saturdays…
One minute with Jonathan Shankland, partner and head of international private wealth at Weightmans.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Where do I start? Having had a manic period dealing with the registration of overseas entities in January, I have since had a number of very interesting matters – from providing the tax and structuring advice for a top 10 global US charity establishing itself in the UK, to advising two clients on the tax and estate planning for the sale of their healthcare business for £300m to private equity. The team has also been very busy in the continued integration following our exciting merger between RadcliffesLeBrasseur & Weightmans in mid-2022.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
Build your network. The biggest, most complex and interesting clients bring with them the most challenging spread of assets, estates and differing tax considerations. In order to give the best advice, you need a broad and talented network of advisers internationally that you know well.
Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem?
The increased compliance for compliance sake that has come into the tax and structuring world in recent years: common reporting standard, registers of beneficial ownership (i.e. the trust registration service) and the various machinations across the world. Anti-money laundering and prevention of tax evasion are, of course, critical issues. However, we now find ourselves with a collection of onerous requirements across multiple jurisdictions, with varying levels of commitment and understanding from governments, advisers, enforcement agencies and clients alike.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
Apologies for the self-indulgence but it was an interesting one! We advised an international client transiting through the UK who had a £1m designer watch confiscated by Border Force and was subjected to the restitution provisions being forced upon him and to cough up import VAT at £200k! We challenged Border Force’s interpretation of the law and application of import VAT in the tax tribunal and through appeal to the magistrates court (two pronged appeal). The matter is unreported as we settled, with all of the tax levied returned, plus significant costs awarded to our client. All clients passing through international borders should be forewarned as to potential issues at border control with high value items.
What are clients currently asking about?
It is hard to look beyond the most topical tax issue for many people in the UK at the moment: the taxation of non-domiciled individuals. This has been a political hot potato for a decade and we have seen increasing moves since 2012 to extend the UK tax net outside of geographical boundaries (ATED 2012, non-resident CGT 2015 and 2019 changes to remittance and domicile rules under FA 2017).
Many of my clients are considering their interests and presence in the UK, and indeed their future investments here. If we were to see a change to the remittance basis of taxation and/or further punitive measures that seek to treat international clients in exactly the same manner as individuals of UK origin, my fear is that this will be massively to the detriment of UK Plc. I would hope that if there were to be a change to the remittance basis of taxation, any new regime would still allow the UK to compete with leading EU nations and incentivise international individuals to come to the UK and bring their expertise, businesses and wealth.
And finally, you might not know this about me but...
Being a born and bred Welshman, I have played a good level of Rugby for many years. Playing for Pontypool in South Wales and then a number of historic clubs in England, culminating with London Welsh before I retired in 2018. I am now a board director with London Welsh and Head of Legal & Commercial for the Richmond based club, where I can be found most Saturdays…
