It seems a reasonable question to pose at the moment - would a GAAR have stopped Barclays' recent attempts to save tax? Clearly, I don't have access to the full details of Barclays' planning but from what I do know and what I can surmise from that, it seems likely that a GAAR along the [...]

I was at a meeting earlier this week where there was a very interesting discussion around tax policy and consultations. Almost inevitably, the discussion eventually turned (albeit briefly) to the question of a GAAR and whether we should have one. So, should we have one? That's a very emotive question but before we can answer that question, [...]

I've just been talking with the FD of a company that is (in my opinion) almost certainly incurring significant amounts of expenditure on qualifying R&D. What's more, it's pretty clear that they've been doing so for several years. The directors of the company are working hard to grow it in a competitive market. Which begs [...]

You cannot fail to have noticed that just about every mobile device/tablet manufacturer is suing at least one of their competitors at the moment. None of them seems to be free from some form of legal action in what is starting to look a little like a merry-go-round of lawsuits! My concern with all of [...]

That is to say, revised guidance has been prepared (in draft) but here’s the problem - it remains un-finalised and, more importantly, unpublished. What that means, of course, is that the current guidance, published in the Corporate Intangibles Research & Development (CIRD) manual at CIRD81350, doesn’t accurately reflect HMRC’s current thinking. Given that HMRC seems [...]

There has been (and continues to be) a lot of consultation around various aspects of the UK tax regime lately. Apart from the fact that sometimes it feels as though it's all happening at once, that has to be a good thing. Most recently, I have been involved in consultations on the CFC reform, the [...]

On December 6 2011, the Government published its response to the previous round of consultation on the Patent Box, as well as draft PB legislation. The latest round of consultation on this response and the draft legislation closes on 10 February 2012. You can read my comments on the latest position here.

Although I do not generally advise on CFC issues per se, I do have an interest in the latest reform proposals in so far as they impact on IP. In general, I believe that the current CFC reforms are heading in the right direction and the Government is to be congratulated on the efforts being [...]

Followers of my Blog will recall that on 8 December I suggested that one of the proposed changes to the EPW rules in the R&D legislation was (in my view) defective. I believe that the proposed amendment (which deals with the quantum of any EPW claim between connected parties) effectively undoes the main amendment which [...]