Adam is a partner in the Transactions Tax Department of the London office.
Although he advises on all direct tax matters, he has particular expertise in advising UK and non-UK companies looking to:
- Reward key UK employees with equity and share options,
- Raise equity investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS), Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) schemes,
- Restructure, merge or demerge their operations in a manner which is efficient for UK tax purposes,
- Adam carries out share valuation work for both tax purposes, and in family matters such as divorce.
He is also an adviser on Stamp Duty Land Tax matters and is a member of the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.
Key experience
- Carrying out a capital reduction demerger of a family company in order to separate the trading subsidiary (which may be sold within the next few years) from the remaining property investment companies. This is likely to result in very significant corporation tax and capital gains tax (CGT) savings on sale,
- Advising an EIS fund which will specialise in renewable energy start-ups, including obtaining approval for the fund from HM Revenue & Customs and advising the fund managers on how to structure their investments to ensure their investors qualify for EIS,
- Advising purchasers of residential property over the new 3% additional charge to SDLT. An issue which recurs regularly is the “grandfathering” of contracts signed before the introduction of the new rules, and ensuring that such contracts do not inadvertently attract the new charge,
- Writing reports for the Court in the matter of the divorce of a UK resident non-domiciled wife and a UK domiciled husband. The report covers CGT consequences of the transfers of the marital assets, tax treatment of distributions to the wife from a Swiss trust, and methods of structuring the divorce settlement to minimise the risk of payments to the husband representing taxable remittances to the UK.
Interests
Adam is married with three young daughters. When he is not working he spends his weekends taking them to swimming lessons, dancing class and Brownies. He is not sure whether this counts as having “interests”.
He is also learning to play the guitar, which is no doubt endearing him to his neighbours.