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Funds partner, Sam Kay, and senior associate, Ed Ford have featured in Private Equity International discussing the opportunities and challenges presented to the GP-led market by the growing appetite for recapitalisations of small numbers of high-performing assets.

Funds partner, Sam Kay, and Tax partner, Elena Rowlands, have featured in the latest Chambers Global Practice Guides, giving an overview of the investment funds market and discussing alternative investment funds, retail funds and the recent developments relating to legal, regulatory and tax changes.

A barrier-free flow of personal data between the EEA and the UK shows much greater promise now that the European Commission has published its draft adequacy decision for the UK. Whilst this is welcome news, it does not mean an end to post-Brexit uncertainty in this area.

Find out more about our disputes practice and how we go about our business.

On the 6^th April 2021, a new Practice Direction 57AC ("PD 57AC") will come into force in the Business and Property Courts, applicable to all trial witness statements signed on or after that date¹. The introduction of PD 57AC represents a fundamental reform to the way factual witness evidence is collected and presented in commercial litigation, and will require a change in working practice and attitude on the part of both parties to commercial proceedings and their lawyers.

Recent press reports have speculated that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is set to increase the main rate of UK corporation tax rate (currently 19%), with some reports predicting a sharp rise to 25%. 

Since our previous briefing there have been a number of developments in the area of tax investigations and disputes. This briefing summarises some key ones and what they mean for taxpayers.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed by the UK and the EU in December 2020 contains a number of provisions which relate to tax. In this briefing, we look at what they are and how far they could constrain the UK's room for manoeuvre on tax issues in future.

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

Although making predictions is fraught with danger at the best of times - let alone during a global pandemic – here are three property-related tax announcements we would not be surprised to hear on 3 March.   

Whatever the Chancellor announces in his forthcoming Budget, employee share plans will continue to play an important role as companies move forward from the Covid-19 pandemic. The tax-advantages that share-based awards can enjoy are a key feature, however, equally important is the impact that share-ownership can have on boosting employee morale, motivation and aligning their interests with other investors.

Episode 1 - LGBTQ+ young people and mental health

The coronavirus lockdown has provoked a mental health crisis among young LGBTQ+ people. This podcast with Dominic Arnall, CEO of LGBT+ charity Just Like Us, and Carly Hubbard, Head of HR at Travers Smith, will highlight findings from the charity's research into the experiences of young LGBTQ+ people over the past year.

Last year we experienced an accelerated growth in the use of data and data driven technologies, such as AI, algorithms and machine learning, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the number of articles speculating on a potential increase in corporation tax or CGT rates, or the implementation of a wealth tax, it is easy to overlook possible changes to the tax compliance and enforcement landscape. However, given the number of new measures announced in the past year as part of the fiscal stimulus package to support the economy, and a tax gap of 4.7% of tax liabilities, it is also likely that the government will continue the development of its proposals to tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax non-compliance.

Early this month, the Court of Appeal handed down an important judgment in Phones 4U Ltd v EE Ltd and Others ("Phones 4U"). The judgment results from an appeal by the defendant mobile network operators of a disclosure order requiring them to request their senior executives to hand over personal devices so that they could be searched by independent IT consultants for documents relevant to the case. The judgment illustrates how the courts will balance the need to ensure disclosure of relevant documents in court proceedings against individuals' rights to privacy, and emphasises the considerable latitude the courts have in crafting orders for disclosure.

The EU's top court has recently confirmed that a financial investor can be liable for a competition infringement of its investee company regardless of whether or not the investor is aware of that company's anticompetitive behaviour. In so doing, it has also clarified when the European Commission can presume an investor to be parentally liable for its investee company without considering further the level of control that investor in fact exercises – holding all the voting rights in a company is sufficient, even if the investor does not hold all of the capital.