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David Jamieson

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David is a partner and has represented clients in VAT disputes for over 15 years at all stages of the litigation process. He specialises in resolving high-value VAT disputes working primarily with clients in financial services and telecommunications and e-commerce sectors.

On 26 January 2023 HM Revenue & Customs announced that, as of 1 January 2023, it has nine live Corporate Criminal Offenses investigations for the failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion, with a further 26 investigation opportunities under review. These live and potential investigations cover 11 different business sectors including software providers, labor provision, transport, accountancy and legal services.

Rapid business transformation across the globe and shifting international policy are driving significant changes to organizations’ tax exposure, financial resilience, strategy and management. These factors are shaping how companies across every sector approach the future of tax dispute resolution.
Our latest report draws on an independent survey of 1,200 tax leaders in 10 jurisdictions and across six sectors conducted in late 2021 and insights from our tax disputes and international tax teams.

Reclassification of individuals or activities for one purpose can have knock on consequences to business models and can lead to issues and liabilities in areas such as employment, wage tax, pensions, tax and regulatory. A decision or change in one area of law may be a time to re-assess the business model and consider whether that determination might have wider commercial implications.

HMRC have issued new VAT guidance in relation to termination fees and compensation payments. HMRC now consider that such payments will normally represent consideration for the supply of goods or services and therefore are liable to VAT. This results in uncertainty for many payments which would have previously been treated as compensation and outside the scope of VAT. We have considered the impact of the new guidance below, specifically in the context of M&A transactions.