Corporate Tax Solicitors
Tax efficient commercial solutions
Our top-ranked corporate tax lawyers can help owners and businesses protect and maximise wealth by identifying commercial solutions in a tax efficient way.
But, more than that, our team can provide bespoke tax efficient strategies for owners and businesses at every point of their lifecycle, from start-up to sale.
By engaging with Higgs you will gain access to specialist lawyers across our whole business services and private client teams, including corporate, commercial property, employment and trust and wills experts. It’s this holistic approach that stands us above our competitors. It means we can seamlessly examine all of your tax requirements across your personal and business needs, ensuring you are acting as efficiently as possible.
Whatever you need help with - from tax effective ways of extracting funds from a business to tax planning in preparation for exit, restructuring, employee incentives, property tax planning to succession planning – our experienced lawyers will be with you every step of the way.
We will always work in partnership with you, liaising with your existing professional advisers such as accountants, pension managers and investment advisers so that we can develop bespoke integrated solutions.
Understanding your business
No two businesses are the same – and that goes for tax, too. The obligations and challenges of a start-up business are different from that of a long-established business.
That’s why we put a strong emphasis on getting to know your business and the industry-specific challenges that you face. It is only by understanding your business thoroughly that we can provide tailored tax advice relevant to you.
Depending on your requirements and your business set-up, our lawyers can offer advice on a range of potential issues, including tax effective approaches to property ownership, incentivising employees, mitigating tax, the tax implications of selling or merging and strategies for extracting funds from a business – and much more besides.
We work with businesses of all shapes and sizes, from owner-managed businesses right through to international corporations. We have extensive experience across a wide range of industries, too, including technologies start-ups, pharmaceutical, childcare, manufacturing and estate agents.
Corporate tax
Regardless of whether you run a domestic or international business, large or small, it’s vitally important that you understand your obligations to avoid running into difficulties.
Our experienced team can analyse your business and help you identify your tax requirements to mitigate against those risks.
We can advise on effective action around Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, VAT and Stamp Taxes.
Demergers and reconstructions
It is often necessary to restructure your business for various commercial or family reasons. Our team of corporate tax lawyers has vast experience in all kinds of corporate restructures from demergers, use of holding companies and share buy backs.
Transactional tax
Whether you’re buying or selling a business, every transaction comes with tax implications. Getting it wrong can be very costly.
Whatever the transaction or investment - from mergers, acquisitions and dispositions to private equity transactions, insolvency workouts to strategic restructurings – our team have the tax efficiency expertise, whether your business is domestic or multijurisdictional.
Tax planning
Tax planning is a critical element of running a business, right from start-up to exit.
Only by looking at the business as a whole can you ensure that all of the elements are working in harmony and that you are paying all of the taxes due – as efficiently as possible.
Our team will take a forensic look at your business’ structure and operations in order to build a strategy for its lifestyle, right up to the day you exit.
Latest successes
Tax indemnities and warranties
Tax indemnities (or the “tax covenants”) and warranties are a common part of share purchase agreements. They ensure a buyer of a business does not lose out if it later transpires the seller hasn’t paid enough tax. Tax warranties are given by the seller to confirm any tax liabilities, allowing the buyer to decide on next actions with all the information available.
Our highly skilled team have wide experience in drafting and negotiating tax indemnities and warranties on behalf of both sellers and buyers. It is a service we offer to other professionals including accountants and other law firms without a dedicated tax team.
Mitigation of tax
Mitigation of tax is neither tax avoidance or evasion. It is, rather, a way of ensuring that your tax affairs are properly structured so that you don’t pay any more tax than you should.
There are a myriad of ways to mitigate your tax in order to legitimately reduce your bill. On the most basic level, this can include the use of financial schemes including pensions, Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax allowances – but, depending on your circumstances, our team are likely to be able to utilise other strategies.
Family Investment Companies
A Family Investment Company (FIC) is a private company usually made up entirely of family members. Typically they are created to protect family assets with a view to transferring wealth to future generations.
They are often used as inheritance tax efficient vehicles.
Property tax
Stamp Duty Land Tax (“SDLT”) is due if you buy a property worth more than £250,000 in England.
SDLT is one of the most complex taxes in England. Without proper advice, you may pay too little tax, or on the other hand, you could miss out on reliefs or exemption which you could be entitled to.
If you are buying property as a buy-to-let investment there a number of ways our industry experts can help to reduce tax, including setting up a property investment company.
Whilst often an afterthought, VAT on property transactions can be a significant problem. Sometimes it is important to ensure a TOGC, while on other occasions an option to tax will be essential.
Employee incentive schemes
Employee incentive schemes are a fantastic way to motivate, attract and retain talent.
They are numerous tax efficent offers you can consider for your staff, including share schemes which allow employees to benefit from the success of the company.
We can help you and your business at every stage, from selecting the right arrangement for your needs to drafting all related paperwork and communicating with employees.
EMI options
We can help you tailor an Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme to meet your company's specific objectives.
EMI option schemes allow companies to grant employees the right to acquire shares on a highly tax efficient basis, benefiting both the employer and the employee.
This is often a fantastic solution for both private and smaller listed companies.
Why choose us as your corporate tax lawyers
We are one the country’s leading corporate law firms with a reputation for excellence – and we’re passionate about tax.
We have helped hundreds of businesses, large and small, firstly ensure they are tax compliant and secondly that they tax efficient.
We’re proud to be a multi-discipline firm, specialising in key areas of law including corporate, employment, real estate and insolvency. It’s by bringing all of these strands together that we can offer you added value.
Speak to our team to elevate your business’ efficiencies to the next level.
Meet the corporate tax team
Susheel Gupta
Partner and Head of Corporate Tax
Kia Starks
Trainee Solicitor - Corporate Tax
Johnathan Hunter
Principal Associate – Corporate Tax
Sarah-Jane Goodswen
Associate - Corporate Tax
George Hinchmore
Senior Associate – Corporate Tax
Richard Ferguson
Legal Director – Corporate Tax
