Our client's Indirect Tax Disputes team, at just under twenty lawyers and litigation specialists, is one of the largest teams in the country. The team deals with disputes in all of the indirect taxes - VAT, excise duties, customs duties, insurance premium tax and environmental taxes.
The focus of the team’s work is far removed from a simple ‘tax litigation’ offering. Whilst it has a long history of success before the courts, the emphasis is on resolution of client’s indirect tax disputes or, better still, preventing disputes occurring in the first place.
Frequently clients require help where they have discovered an issue within their indirect tax affairs and before there is any involvement from HMRC. The team, working within the realms of legal advisory privilege, are able to investigate and advise on resolutions. Our client's experience is that this early engagement helps keep control over the flow of information and significantly increases the prospect of the matter ever becoming a dispute.
Environmental Taxes
Environmental taxes are a significant and growing area of the business, especially with the introduction of the new plastic packaging tax. The team boasts the market leader in environmental taxes and has one of the largest dedicated teams of specialists within the UK dealing with energy, waste, quarrying and packaging.
Working with the extensive Tax Disputes and Legal networks and the wider Tax business, the team delivers commercial and practical advice on complex, high value disputes and implementation of the new plastic packaging tax.
Clients come to the team for their tax technical depth of knowledge, industry experience, knowledge and experience of the application and management of tax risk for these complex operational taxes and ability to flex dispute resolution styles; including recourse to other settlement mechanisms such as ADR as well as their recognised expertise in tax litigation.
Operational ITX
One growing area the team works in is Indirect Tax Operations, focusing on helping clients deliver tax - digitally, strategically and operationally.
These roles include assisting clients to define and execute all aspects of their strategy for indirect tax management, designing and implementing tax governance and control frameworks, working on process improvement and automation projects, working with the indirect tax technology, data, systems and tax engine teams, and the review and provision of assurance services for clients across the indirect taxes.
Technology
Technology is at the core of everything our client does. Within their larger Indirect Tax team there are two strands of technology expertise. The first is in how they implement tax technology products to achieve business goals and provide guidance to clients on this piece - essentially expertise on how to use the various types of technology within ITX. The second strand is where the firm develops its own ITX technology products, which includes the complete enterprise software development lifecycle from product management, through to software engineering, DevOps, QA & verification, deployment and product support.
Compliance
Our client's Tax Compliance team is a leading provider of technology enabled compliance and integrated advisory services, working across an unrivalled range of prestigious clients. The variety of work, size of the team and focus on learning and development brings about opportunities to specialise in particular industries or technical areas.
A key part of this team is their global Indirect tax compliance, providing services to many of the firm’s largest and most important clients. They provide clients with Indirect tax compliance services globally with a key focus in EMEA.
The team is agile and open to new ways of working. The investment in their people, automation and robotics enables them to be at the forefront of change and innovation. Together, they produce technical excellence, innovative solutions and an outstanding client experience.
Customs and Excise
Customs duty encompasses not only the tax but all rules and regulations for importing and exporting goods to and from the UK. It's not just an indirect tax specialist but you will learn about international supply chain optimisation which is an increasingly expanding area of importance for the UK post Brexit. In addition, excise duty not only covers major industries such as alcohol, oil and tobacco but new taxes as well such as soft drinks levy.
VAT Advisory
Advising clients on how they interpret and execute the increasingly complex rules and regulations relating to VAT is the most significant aspect of the work the indirect tax practice undertakes for clients. It represents the core aspect of our client's business and is often the starting point of their engagement with clients and the foundation from which they go on to provide a variety of other services. Their work for clients covers a wide range of sectors and industries and necessitates a deep understanding of the UK VAT system, the EU framework and the variety of rules and regulations in jurisdictions across the globe. The support they provide to clients ranges from the deep technical to the practical operational and involves working closely with clients, the firm's VAT/GST specialists in other territories and the tax authorities. Our client is renowned for the depth and quality of the advice they provide, and their VAT advisory practice is the largest and most successful practice in the UK.
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