14 November 2004 – LAWFUEL – Law firm, legal, attorney news – Full service law firm, DLA LLP has embarked on a major expansion of its contentious tax practice with the appointment of four new tax specialists. The new arrivals reinforce DLA’s national tax investigations practice and also allow the firm to expand its tax litigation service offering.
Aileen Barry, Dave Tyrer and Andy Sharp have all joined the national tax investigations team as directors. Aileen was formerly a tax investigations partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Originally an inspector (senior principal) in the Inland Revenue Special Compliance Office, she has spent the past 15 years in professional practice, managing all aspects of revenue investigations, covering Hansard, information notices, avoidance challenges, and withholding tax audits.
Dave Tyrer and Andy Sharp are both former SCO investigators (senior principal), and Andy was a Hansard group leader. More recently, they have been running their own tax investigations practice, Specialist Taxation Services. This practice was based in the North West of England and covered avoidance challenges, prosecutions, and Hansard investigations.
In addition, Hartley Foster, formerly of McGrigors, has joined to head up the contentious tax arm of the practice. Hartley has specialised in contentious tax for over six years and has been responsible for conducting high-profile complex tax litigation at all levels – from tax tribunals to the House of Lords and the European Court of Justice. He has been one of the main advisers for major multinational companies in class actions that challenge aspects of the UK tax legislation on grounds of non-compliance with EU law.
Tax investigations partner, Jonathan Pickworth, states that the need for an all-round tax service is greater than ever because of the pressures exerted by government: “UK taxpayers face a challenging environment. The tax authorities are getting tougher. They have sought to blur the boundaries between tax avoidance and tax evasion, making it clear that what they regard as unacceptable tax planning will be challenged.”
Neil Gerrard, Head of the Regulatory Group said: “I am delighted that Aileen, Dave, Andy, and Hartley are joining the Regulatory Group. The Inland Revenue has been set a target of raising an additional £1.6 billion in revenue from historic tax liabilities by 2006. Inevitably, this will result in more investigations, more enquiries and a stronger use of enforcement powers. Yet, at the same time, the UK corporation tax system faces its biggest ever challenge through the cases in which it is asserted that key elements of the system are in breach of EU law. Strengthened by these four appointments, the Regulatory Group is able to provide the specialist tax advice that is needed to meet these challenges.”