What can I do for you?
I can advise on the full range of corporate taxes including corporation tax, VAT, SDLT, employment taxes and the construction industry scheme. I also advise companies on establishing and maintaining employee share schemes. I am lucky to be able to work with a variety of clients including start up companies and established businesses, educational clients, local authorities, NHS trusts, property developers and property investors. It’s important to know your client and tailor your advice appropriately. You will often find that I become involved in a matter when specialist tax support is required and I am called on by colleagues in teams across Mills & Reeve.
Supporting my clients’ objectives
I often assist with advising on tax aspects of the sale, purchase, development or holding of real estate investments. One project that stands out, for instance, is where our client, a large charitable educational institution, is developing land near Ashford in Kent. The challenge has been to ensure there is a structure in place that ensures our client keeps the benefit of its charitable exemption from corporation tax while remaining workable and not overcomplicating our client's development plans. With a very different type of client, I have been advising a prospering R&D company on the operation of its EMI (enterprise management incentives) share option scheme. Its great to be able to assist a client like this to make effective use of a tax advantaged scheme that helps it recruit and retain the best staff.
What do others say?
I was involved with giving VAT advice to Newnham College, Cambridge for the construction of its new library right through from the initial planning when I was a trainee solicitor to the final hearing seven years later in the House of Lords giving a landmark decision in the college’s favour on the meaning of occupation in the context of the VAT anti-avoidance rules. Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe described the arrangements we had put in place for the college as “a skilfully prepared and carefully executed plan."