European Tax Advisory

Stamp Duty Land Tax (“SDLT”) and the Land and Building Transaction Tax (“LBTT”) in Scotland) can be a significant cost for a purchaser, and given the changes in recent years, is increasingly complex for investors to navigate through.

Together, the FTI Consulting team has over 30 years of stamp taxes experience and is able to help our clients understand the relevant pitfalls, opportunities and risks associated with the acquisition, restructuring and leasing of real estate.

Our services also include advice on the application of the annual charge on enveloped dwellings (“ATED”), the availability of exemptions and the preparation and submission of ATED returns, advice on LBTT, with the team having been part of the Scottish Government working group that inputted into the policies and drafting of the legislation, and dispute management and litigation support, including advocacy.

With more emphasis placed by stakeholders on corporates to control and improve the manner in which they deal with their tax compliance process, businesses are continually revisiting the way in which they manage tax compliance. This ensures that tax and process risks are minimised and cost efficiencies maximised.

FTI Consulting has significant experience working with a wide range of groups, including REITS, UK-listed and unlisted property companies, and international property investors, developers and occupiers. Our tax advisory, compliance and reporting team provides high-quality, tailored, flexible and cost-effective solutions to tax advisory and compliance issues. This ranges from securing additional resources for in-house teams to assuming the entire tax function for groups or delivering outsourced tax return preparation services.

A significant amount of our senior involvement means we leverage our experience and skills to identify opportunities to maximise value and minimise tax risk.

Our team is experienced in partnering with businesses to provide a wide range of compliance and reporting services, including preparation of corporate tax, income tax, and partnership tax computations and returns, tax provisioning for statutory accounts purposes, preparing accounting journals, undertaking tax reconciliations and liaising with auditors, group reporting, including year-end/quarterly reporting and forecasting, under IFRS, U.S. GAAP and UK GAAP, review of tax impact and implementation of IFRS and FRS 101/102 conversions, deferred tax reporting and analysis for both routine reporting purposes and assessment of deferred tax impacts of specific planning and transactions, iXBRL tagging service for financial statements in line with HMRC’s online filing criteria for corporate tax returns, dispute resolution with HMRC, senior accounting officer support, and tax reporting improvement and consolidation modelling.

FTI Consulting is recognised as a leader in tax depreciation and process improvement. Our team has a combination of chartered surveying, chartered tax and chartered accounting skills which make them ideally placed to help bridge the gap between the different stakeholders and professions involved in the preparation and delivery of the tax computations. It has unrivalled experience in providing sustainable solutions that deliver an appropriate balance between compliance, optimisation of tax reliefs and process efficiency.

The team’s experience includes working with FTSE 100 listed property companies and REITS, individual and overseas investors as well as large corporate owner occupiers.

Although our core offering centres on UK capital allowances, it also acts across many other European jurisdictions and has a particular specialism in US in-bound investment into Europe.

Our services include:

Specialist Advisory

• Transaction and Technical opinion and advice
• Construction Costs Analysis
• Bench Marking
• Cost Estimates
• Purchase Claims
• Process Engineering (Fixed Asset Tax Reporting processes)

Process Review, Choices and Recommendations

• Design, Implementation and Embedding
• Knowledge Transfer
• Assurance
• Future Proofing

Compliance

• Preparation of annual Tax Depreciation Reports
• Process Assurance
• Identification of additional Tax Reliefs
• Managing Change

All transactions have a tax implication. FTI Consulting tax specialists deploy effective structuring strategies and commercially focused tax diligence to maximise value opportunities and minimise risk for a range of investors. Our team is experienced in all types of domestic and cross border transactions including fund and JV structuring, disposals, restructurings, refinancings and initial public offerings.

We are proud to lead the FTI Global Tax Network, which provides high quality tax advisory, transfer pricing and compliance services to large multinational clients across all industry sectors, which you can find out more about here: http://fti.tax. By combining cross-border transaction expertise with local tax knowledge, our team is able to deliver high-quality, coordinated tax advice wherever the transaction occurs. All engagements are managed by our dedicated transactions team, based in London, providing expert structuring advice and leading-edge solutions at every stage of the transaction cycle, from the initial due diligence phase to structuring sale and purchase agreements to post-deal implementation.

Our transaction experts advise on the formation of joint ventures and funds, balancing the tax needs of different investors and management teams (including the structuring of carried interest participations), advise on incentivisation and retention of key staff and partners via tax and cost-efficient management and partner incentive planning, structure the purchase of an asset or company tax efficiently with flexibility on exit or refinancing, assess historical and future tax exposures in a target, and impact on deal negotiation, SPA drafting and insurance, and achieve tax-efficient returns on exit.

The transfer pricing environment is undergoing significant change. At the request of the G20, the OECD has led a programme to discuss base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) which has included a review of its transfer pricing guidance. Going forward, multinational groups will be required to provide greater transparency of their operations and tax profile in the countries where they operate and greater scrutiny of the tax affairs of multinational groups is to be expected.

The FTI Consulting Transfer Pricing team draws on the unparalleled experience of over 120 economists who price complex commercial and financial transactions, undertake valuations of intangibles and stand as expert witnesses in litigation cases. We are fully engaged with the BEPS programme and actively participate in the OECD’s consultations on transfer pricing matters, including Cost Contribution Arrangements and Hard-to-Value Intangibles. Also the team advises on the post BEPS environment and provides practical solutions to ensure adherence to new OECD guidance.

We provide a fully integrated transfer pricing service supported by our deep international tax and economic expertise. In addition, we are part of an international tax network of highly respected transfer pricing and international tax professionals for the delivery of multi-jurisdiction projects.

As FTI Consulting is free from audit and assurance client relationships, our clients can be certain that we will always be positioned to defend their transfer pricing policies and advise them on an ongoing basis.

Our services include advising on transfer pricing strategy which aligns tax compliance and business objectives, BEPS impact analysis and advising clients on solutions compliant with the latest OECD recommendations, preparation of master file (global/local) documentation, including reviewing country-by-country reports and performing risk analysis, managing disputes with tax authorities, restructuring and/or acquisition advisory, advance Thin Capitalisation Agreements (“ACTAs”) and Advance Pricing Agreements (“APAs”), pricing complex intra-group financial arrangements, valuing intangible assets, for licensing or sale purposes, optimising the tax efficiency of supply chains, and undertaking Diverted Tax Profits (“DPT”) risk reviews and mitigating DPT risk.

Real Estate is one of the most complex areas for Value Added Tax and large transactions create a real risk of error and significant, unnecessary cost. Dealing with implications of VAT is therefore an integral part of the FTI Consulting real estate tax service.

Our team is one of the most experienced and well respected in the market and provides clear, user friendly and commercial guidance to all types of investor, developer and occupier.

Our services include advice on all aspects of the acquisition and disposal process including due diligence, cash-flow planning and Transfer of Going Concern issues, advice to developers, such as dealing with the problems commonly arising with residential and mixed developments, student accommodation, partial exemption and option to tax, and VAT compliance.

In many cases, obtaining the optimum VAT treatment, and the most beneficial cash-flow effect is dependent on elections, registrations and decisions being made and notified at the right time. We manage all of these tasks, liaising with HMRC as appropriate, to ensure a smooth and trouble-free transaction. We also provide a fixed price, economical solution for ongoing compliance (VAT returns, intrastat etc), both in the UK and globally.