Tax Disputes

Our dedicated Tax Disputes team works across the full range of matters, from risk reviews and informal HMRC enquiries to formal investigations, settlement negotiations and complex litigation. We work with corporates, individuals, trustees and financial institutions, typically on high-profile or high-value matters involving intricate structures or cross-border elements. 

Our experience covers the full range of direct and indirect tax, including income and corporation tax, VAT, employment taxes, transfer pricing and international tax compliance. Many of our matters involve parallel regulatory investigations or sensitive reputational issues. 

We work closely with our colleagues across Corporate Crime, Private Client, Commercial Litigation, Tax Policy and Financial Services to provide seamless, commercially focused advice that is tailored to the issue at hand.

Our approach is Partner-led and pragmatic. We are typically able to help clients resolve issues swiftly and privately, either through settlement or alternative dispute resolution (ADR). When litigation is necessary, however, our specialist team is able to draw upon our significant experience at every level of the Court system, from the specialist Tax Tribunals through to the Supreme Court.

We also help clients design and implement governance and compliance structures to manage their future risk. For many, we act as long-term advisers, guiding them through the many complex rules and fast-changing regulatory landscape.

We advise on:

• enquiries, risk reviews and HMRC interventions (including COP8 and COP9);
• defending tax positions before the Tax Tribunals and courts;
• negotiating settlements with HMRC, including through ADR;
• judicial reviews of public body decisions;
• cross-border disputes, mutual agreement procedures and tax arbitrations;
• the tax implications of regulatory or financial services investigations;
• disclosure obligations and international information exchange;
• failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion (CCOs);
• governance, policy design and implementation of tax compliance procedures;
• tax insurance and risk management strategies; and
• professional negligence claims relating to tax advice.

We are often instructed in matters involving novel issues, sensitive facts or that require significant cross-border coordination. In global disputes, we regularly provide strategic oversight and act as "global counsel" for international clients, coordinating UK advice with other jurisdictions. Our focus is on protecting our clients’ position, whether through the courts, by direct negotiation or achieving a settlement through arbitration. 

Work highlights include:

• successfully resisting a VAT claim at the High Court and Court of Appeal, on behalf of a FTSE 100 company who was facing a group litigation order involving approximately 300 claimants;
• advising a number of firms on various claims raised by HMRC with respect to the taxation of management fees, the application of the salaried member rules and the mixed member rules and the taxation of remuneration arrangements more generally, including taking an appeal to the Supreme Court;
• advising a multinational group with respect to matters concerning transfer pricing and the application of the diverted profits tax, including by way of Alternative Dispute Resolution;
• successfully appealing at the Tax Tribunal, a claim by HMRC against a high-net-worth individual that he was resident for tax purposes in the UK;
• bringing a judicial review challenge (now determined in the taxpayer’s favour) with respect to HMRC’s approach to the taxation of certain Enterprise Zone arrangements;
• securing full compensation for VAT costs that arose as a result of professional negligence in relation to a real estate transaction; and
• advising a high-profile individual with respect to a potential fraud investigation by HMRC.