Spotting employment tax ‘deal breakers’

Employment taxes tend to be the poor relation in the spectrum of tax advice particularly on transactions where due diligence comments may be seen as pettifogging detail by some. A careful adviser will of course only highlight issues that are material in the context of the deal (while being careful to emphasise to clients that there is no general materiality threshold for tax purposes and that any such issues will need to be dealt with in due course). But there are occasions where PAYE and NIC can give rise to significant issues – so significant in fact that they sabotage the whole deal. Where there has been default over a number of years ...