Corporate Tax

Employee Ownership Trusts

An EOT is a type of employee benefit trust that was introduced by the government in September 2014 in an effort to encourage more shareholders to establish a corporate structure giving greater employee ownership, albeit through an indirect holding. The government provided very generous tax breaks to encourage shareholders to transition to an employee-ownership model. However, in order to qualify for the tax breaks, employee ownership must be structured in a specific way which our team of tax specialists can guide you through.

Capital Allowances Services

Capital allowances are a useful tool for reducing the after-tax cost of purchasing plant, equipment, fixtures, and fittings, as well as acquiring, building, fitting out, or refurbishing property. Not all capital expenditure qualifies for capital allowance relief as it must be on a specific asset type. Typically, you must own the asset for which capital allowances are claimed. If you hire or lease the asset, you cannot normally claim capital allowances, but you may be able to get tax relief on the rental costs as revenue expenditure.

Transaction Tax

When entering into either an acquisition or merger, tax can become a key aspect of the planning phase. Whether it be minimising tax cost on returns to shareholders, advice on investment decisions and the subsequent tax implications or efficiently structuring share and asset sales, our team can provide expert guidance. Working closely aside our transaction advisory services team, our tax specialists can provide technical and commercial oversight on tax due diligence projects for buy-side and sell-side transactions and advise on pre-acquisition and post-acquisition tax structuring.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is paid by the purchaser in a land transaction, which includes not only the simple conveyance of land, such as buying a house, but also the creation or assignment of a lease. If you are considering property investment or acquiring a lease on a commercial property, we can assist you in making tax-efficient property acquisitions.

Forensic Tax Accounting

Our highly skilled forensic tax accounting service are able to analyse, interpret and summarise complex financial issues on your behalf. In the event of the worse case scenario, our team are able to find evidence to show what and how something has happened, advise on what corrective steps, and ensure you reduce the chances of it happening again.

Expert witness

Our team of experts have experience of acting in both matrimonial and shareholder disputes.  We take appointment as court experts either for one party or as a single joint expert appointment. We can also provide shadow expert services help a disputing party to understand the financial and tax implications throughout the settlement negotiation or to assist interpretation, and provide challenges to, court expert reports.

Enterprise management incentives (EMI)

Enterprise management incentive (EMI) share options are specifically designed for trading companies with high growth potential, and are intended to aid in the recruitment and retention of employees. The process allows employers to grant share options to key employee’s tax efficiently, as a reward for their efforts within the business. In general, if an employer rewards an employee with unapproved shares, Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions are levied on the difference between the market value of the shares and any amount paid towards them, just like a salary or bonus. If, on the other hand, EMI options are granted at market value, there will be no charge to Income Tax or National Insurance Contributions at the time of grant or exercise. HMRC can provide prior agreement on the value of the company shares at grant.

Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR)

BADR, formerly known as Entrepreneurs’ Relief, is a capital gains tax (CGT) relief designed to encourage individuals to expand and invest in their businesses, and it is a valuable source of relief for higher and additional rate taxpayers. Individuals selling personal businesses or partnership interests, as well as directors and employees selling shares in the company (or group of companies) for which they work, may be eligible for the relief. We can provide guidance in this complex area of tax planning.

Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is intended to help your company raise funds to help it grow. It achieves this by providing tax relief to individual investors who purchase new shares in your company. The money raised by the new share issue must be used for a certain qualifying business activities and the business must be within the eligible criteria, all of which our team of tax specialists can guide you through.

Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)  is a system that is designed to raise up a maximum of £150,000 to help your company when it’s starting to trade. It does this by offering tax reliefs to individual investors who buy new shares in your company. There is certain criteria that needs to be met such as is not trading on a recognised stock exchange at the time of the share issue, being established in the UK AND not have gross assets over £200,000 when the shares are issued, amongst others. Our experienced team are able to guide you through the SEIS criteria and process.

Research & Development (R&D) Tax Relief

If a company invests money in developing new products, processes, or services for their business, or in adjusting and updating an existing product, service, or process, the company may be eligible to claim the R&D tax credit for R&D tax relief. R&D exists across a number of sectors, not just those in the technology space. To be eligible for R&D tax relief a business must be a limited company in the UK that is subject to Corporation Tax, Have carried out qualifying research and development activities, and spent money on these projects. Our extended knowledge in this area means we are to spot qualifying activities that may have previously gone unnoticed. In some situations, businesses are able to claim for two years previous qualifying activities.

Patent box

Patent Box is a more recent initiative that began in 2013. Patent Box initiatives are common in Europe, and they are also intended to reduce taxation on profits related to areas of innovation. Patent Box, in particular, can reduce corporation tax to 10% on profits earned through eligible patents.

Growth shares & Share incentive schemes

Our team can advise on a full range of employee share incentives including unapproved schemes, growth shares, Joint Share Ownership Plans as well as EMI as noted above.  Our team will help you navigate both the tax and commercial implications of implementing these employee incentives and can provide detailed models of the position in various exit scenarios.

Restructuring and reorganisations

Companies/groups need to restructure for a number of reasons.  This may be for commercial protection, to allow shareholder to part ways, to prepare for an exit event or simply to rationalise a group structure.  Our expert team can guide you through the complex rules relating to group reorganisation and provide you with proactive advice in relation to the most tax efficient way to achieve your desired result.

Valuation services

Our team is regularly involved in providing valuations for a variety of industries.  These valuations include fiscal valuations for tax reporting purposes, commercial valuations for business transaction and valuations to assist dispute settlements.  When we undertake a valuation we look further than the numbers and consider all factors that may affect the value of a business to provide the most accurate value for the business.  We can value minority shareholdings as well as full business valuations.