One minute with Tim Walford-Fitzgerald, client partner at HW Fisher.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
At the moment, there is a significant amount of property development activity with the nuances of joint venture arrangements, funding structures and eventual extraction. Whilst a commonplace activity, there are often details in the particular circumstances that require special attention, depending on the size of the project and the goals of the parties. Aside from that, HW Fisher has such a broad client base that it could be anything on a particular day: it could be winding up a modest family trust in the morning and carried interests in the afternoon.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
Merge the main rate of income tax and NICs, as it would provide significant simplification and could create a more equitable tax base. The contributory principle would be maintained through a flat rate levy and employees would see no difference in their net pay. Pensions could be protected by applying the savings rates, if politically expedient, but other sources, such as rental profits, would be taxed in the same way as earnings. This would have the added benefit of economically imposing a social security levy on overseas landlords, without the arguments experienced in France.
Are any new rules causing a particular problem in practice?
The proliferation of data gathering by the government has caused some headaches and will continue to do so. From the immediate returns of land disposals, where no tax is due through the various iterations of the trust register, the expanding reporting obligations are sure to result in errors and omissions galore. This will allow HMRC to collect IHT from the overseas individual who dies owning shares in a Panama incorporated investment company.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
The reasoning in Andrew Thornhill QC’s recent negligence case (McClean and others v Thornhill QC [2022] EWHC 457 (Ch)) was a great reminder that everyone needs their own tax advice. Whether it is a packaged scheme or just following a friend’s nineteenth hole tax planning, it is aptly named ‘personal’ tax advice.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
You don’t always get all the facts. It’s key to elicit not only the ultimate objectives from clients, but also the practical difficulties they may face in reaching those goals. This understanding is crucial to deliver technically sound and commercially practical advice. This means that I can ensure that the appropriate members of the team can get involved and everyone understands the wider implications surrounding a transaction, whether it is an isolated transaction or longer-term structuring.
What are clients currently asking about?
Divorce. Whether it is their own relationship or they are concerned about the current or future relationships of their family, marital breakdown is a very real issue for clients whose chief concern is protecting wealth for future generations. Any recent commentary that suggested that trusts are nothing more than tax avoidance vehicles appears to have overlooked the basic human desire to take care of your own progeny.
You might not know this about me but...
My favourite way to escape the pressures of life is to get under a different sort of pressure: 20 to 30 metres of English coastal water is ideal. The UK has some fantastic scuba diving and there is not usually a mobile signal sitting on a boat in the Channel between dives.
One minute with Tim Walford-Fitzgerald, client partner at HW Fisher.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
At the moment, there is a significant amount of property development activity with the nuances of joint venture arrangements, funding structures and eventual extraction. Whilst a commonplace activity, there are often details in the particular circumstances that require special attention, depending on the size of the project and the goals of the parties. Aside from that, HW Fisher has such a broad client base that it could be anything on a particular day: it could be winding up a modest family trust in the morning and carried interests in the afternoon.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
Merge the main rate of income tax and NICs, as it would provide significant simplification and could create a more equitable tax base. The contributory principle would be maintained through a flat rate levy and employees would see no difference in their net pay. Pensions could be protected by applying the savings rates, if politically expedient, but other sources, such as rental profits, would be taxed in the same way as earnings. This would have the added benefit of economically imposing a social security levy on overseas landlords, without the arguments experienced in France.
Are any new rules causing a particular problem in practice?
The proliferation of data gathering by the government has caused some headaches and will continue to do so. From the immediate returns of land disposals, where no tax is due through the various iterations of the trust register, the expanding reporting obligations are sure to result in errors and omissions galore. This will allow HMRC to collect IHT from the overseas individual who dies owning shares in a Panama incorporated investment company.
Has a recent tax case caught your eye?
The reasoning in Andrew Thornhill QC’s recent negligence case (McClean and others v Thornhill QC [2022] EWHC 457 (Ch)) was a great reminder that everyone needs their own tax advice. Whether it is a packaged scheme or just following a friend’s nineteenth hole tax planning, it is aptly named ‘personal’ tax advice.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
You don’t always get all the facts. It’s key to elicit not only the ultimate objectives from clients, but also the practical difficulties they may face in reaching those goals. This understanding is crucial to deliver technically sound and commercially practical advice. This means that I can ensure that the appropriate members of the team can get involved and everyone understands the wider implications surrounding a transaction, whether it is an isolated transaction or longer-term structuring.
What are clients currently asking about?
Divorce. Whether it is their own relationship or they are concerned about the current or future relationships of their family, marital breakdown is a very real issue for clients whose chief concern is protecting wealth for future generations. Any recent commentary that suggested that trusts are nothing more than tax avoidance vehicles appears to have overlooked the basic human desire to take care of your own progeny.
You might not know this about me but...
My favourite way to escape the pressures of life is to get under a different sort of pressure: 20 to 30 metres of English coastal water is ideal. The UK has some fantastic scuba diving and there is not usually a mobile signal sitting on a boat in the Channel between dives.
