Ben Webster Senior Counsel

Senior Counsel

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Ben advises on a wide range of contentious tax matters for individuals, partnerships, funds, multi-nationals and FTSE-listed companies.

Ben is senior counsel within the tax investigations and disputes team, and his varied practice includes advising clients on HMRC powers and enquiries, disputes before the Tax Tribunals, High Court disputes that involve tax, and the mitigation of tax risk on commercial transactions.

Ben regularly advises on the technical, tactical and procedural aspects of tax investigations and disputes across the full range of direct and indirect taxes, and has been involved with cases at all levels of the UK tax tribunal and civil court system. Ben also acts in High Court litigation and judicial reviews, with a particular focus on cases involving the alleged negligence of advisors, the conduct of HMRC and claims involving mistake and rectification.

Ben has experience utilising different forms of ADR to settle disputes with HMRC and commercial counterparties, and also advises on wider international and European tax issues, including the residence and domicile status of HNW individuals, the cross-border exchange of information and transfer pricing disputes. Ben is also a qualified Solicitor Advocate.

Expertise

Recent work

Canaccord

Advising Canaccord in relation to multi-million pound professional negligence claims brought by multiple investors in a number of different film financing structures (Breitenbach and ors v Canaccord Genuity Financial Planning Limited (BL-2019-001282).

UK partnerships

Advising a number of UK partnerships, including HFFX LLP and Odey Asset Management LLP, on disputes with HMRC regarding the income tax impact of their remuneration structures (HFFX LLP and ors v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 36 (TC); Odey and Ors v HMRC [2021] UKFTT 31).

UK partnership

Advising a UK partnership on its judicial review and Tax Tribunal appeals regarding the taxation of Enterprise Zones (Cobalt and ors v HMRC [2020] UKUT 0356).

Telefonica

Advising Telefonica on its judicial review of HMRC’s decision to resile from an agreed method for calculating part of its UK VAT liability (Telefonica Europe Plc v HMRC [2016] UKUT 173).

Overseas investment company

Advising an overseas investment company regarding a multi-million pound corporate residence dispute with HMRC.

HNW individual

Advising a HNW individual in respect of requiring HMRC to close long-running vexatious enquiries into his domicile status.

A number of HNW individuals

Advising a number of HNW individuals in relation to their potential liability for tax penalties as part of ongoing HMRC enquiries.

Ultra-high-net worth individual

Advising an ultra-high-net worth individual in connection with HMRC’s attempt to rescind a binding settlement agreement regarding income, capital gains and inheritance tax liability.

Multi-national commodities company

Advising a multi-national commodities company on their salaried members dispute with HMRC.

FTSE-150 company

Advising a FTSE-150 company on its internal investigation into suspected fraudulent practices within its quality control function, including the potential tax impact.

Multi-national

Advising a multi-national on the tax aspects of a £1bn plus acquisition, with particular reference to the impact of disputes with HMRC regarding claims for R&D relief and on-going Code of Practice 9 investigations.

Global real estate developer

Advising a global real estate developer on disputes with HMRC regarding its liability for ATED.

Multi-national life insurance company

Advising a multi-national life insurance company on allegations of professional negligence regarding the suitability of overseas products for individuals relocating to the UK.

Asset managers

Advising a range of asset managers on defending protective NICs claims.

FTSE-listed homebuilder

Advising a FTSE-listed homebuilder in relation to settlement negotiations with HMRC as part of the High Risk Corporate Programme following its entry into multiple tax mitigation structures.

Global financial institution

Advising a global financial institution in relation to the powers of overseas revenue authorities to use HMRC to obtain information about UK and non-UK resident taxpayers.

See all

What people are saying

"Ben Webster and Gideon Sanitt have been excellent. Their depth of experience has served us well. I trust their judgement implicitly and feel that they are working with us at all times to get the best result for us."

Legal 500 2024

Quick reads

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In depth

Johnson and Johnson: careless despite white space disclosure

Ben Webster 22 Jul 2022

The First-tier Tribunal has reaffirmed that when an agent had been careless when completing the tax return, the inclusion of white space disclosures as a way of ‘hedging their...

A serious effort - steps taxpayers must take to show a document is not within their "power"

Ben Webster 04 Jul 2022

The First-tier Tax Tribunal has suggested in One Call that anyone who receives a formal document request from HMRC must make a "serious effort" to acquire the documents before they...

Autumn Budget 2021—tax predictions from the market

Rhiannon Kinghall Were, Ben Webster 19 Oct 2021

The autumn Budget will be delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, 27 October 2021. We shared our predictions on the tax measures that might be...