Specialist advisory services.

We produce written technical opinions on complex tax questions, prepared to a standard suitable for professional reliance. These reports are commonly instructed by accountants and solicitors who require a specialist second opinion, or by businesses facing a transaction or enquiry where the tax position needs to be formally documented. Where the law is unsettled, the facts are unusual, or the figures at stake are significant, a clear and properly reasoned opinion gives you a firm basis on which to act.

We advise on tax planning across corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, SDLT and income tax for owner managed businesses, their shareholders and associated family wealth structures. Our planning advice is always grounded in the client's commercial reality, because the most effective arrangement is one that supports what you are genuinely trying to achieve rather than one driven by tax considerations alone. We take time to understand the objectives behind a transaction, the family or business circumstances that surround it, and the timescales involved, so that the advice we give is practical, durable and capable of withstanding scrutiny.

We support businesses and individuals through HMRC enquiry and investigation processes, from the initial information notice through to settlement or Tribunal. An enquiry can be unsettling, particularly where the issues are technical, the periods under review span several years, or the sums in question are significant, and the way the early stages are handled often shapes the outcome that follows. We act as an experienced and independent point of contact between you and HMRC, managing correspondence, framing responses carefully and keeping the process moving towards a resolution, so that you are properly protected and kept informed at every stage.

Owner managed businesses frequently require restructuring as they grow, as shareholders' circumstances change, or in preparation for a sale or succession. A structure that suited a business at one stage can become an obstacle at another, whether by complicating a sale, exposing shareholders to unnecessary tax, or making it difficult to separate competing interests, and the right reorganisation can resolve these issues while leaving the underlying business intact. We advise on the full range of restructuring transactions, obtaining HMRC clearance where available, and working closely with solicitors to ensure the legal and tax analysis is fully coordinated from the outset.

We provide independent expert opinion for court and tribunal proceedings. In litigation, the tax or valuation question is frequently central to the sum in dispute, and the court relies on the expert to set out a clear, impartial and well-reasoned analysis on which it can base its decision. Our overriding duty in this work is to the court rather than to those instructing us, and our reports are prepared accordingly, with the reasoning, assumptions and any areas of disagreement stated transparently.

We prepare tax returns for complex situations where specialist technical knowledge is required. Many returns are straightforward, but some involve positions where the right treatment is genuinely uncertain, where a relief or election must be claimed correctly to be effective, or where the figures flow from a transaction or planning step that needs to be reflected accurately on the return. In those cases the preparation of the return is itself a technical exercise, and a return that is poorly framed can undermine an otherwise sound position or invite an enquiry that might have been avoided.