Accountants and Tax Advisers: Responsibilities, Risks, and What to Do When Things Go Wrong

This Introductory to Intermediate course will:

• Provide a key practical review of the responsibilities and duties of professional advisers in the accountancy and tax professions.
• Enable advisers to understand the range of potential remedies for transactions and structures when things go wrong inthe context of case studies 

Regulatory Framework

• Contract
• Law of Negligence
• Anti-money laundering
• Criminal Finances Act 2007

Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT)

• Tax Planning v. Avoidance v. the GAAR: the current climate
• Professional Standards and facilitation and promotion of tax avoidance
• Tax evasion
• Summary of recent developments
• Professional Bodies and applicable Standards: ACCA, AAT, ATT, CIOT, STEP
• integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour
• Tax planning: the client specific standard
• Tax planning: the lawful standard
• Tax planning: the disclosure and transparency standard
• Tax planning: (i) contrary to the clear intention of Parliament in enacting relevant legislation; and/or (ii) highly artificial or
• highly contrived arrangements
• Solicitors Regulatory Authority requirements
• Bar Standards Board requirements
• Taxation Disciplinary Board
  • Complaints
  • How to defend
  • TDB powers and sanctions

Regulatory obligations

• Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) / overview / hallmarks / who is a promoter? / who is an introducer?
• Finance Act 2004
• Disclosure of VAT Avoidance Schemes: Schedule 11A to the VAT Act 1994 and Schedule 2 to the Finance Act 2004
• Promoters of Tax Avoidance Schemes (POTAS)
• Monitoring notices

Liability under Contract

• Engagement letter: scope and interpretation
• Express and other implied terms (The Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, s.13)
• Breach of terms
• Causation
• Loss
• Limitation

Liability for negligence

• Duty of care
• Concurrent duty of care in tort
• Standard of care
• Breach of duty
• Failure to warn of specific risks
• Causation: did the breach cause the loss? Did the claimants rely on the advice which was given?
• Loss
• Limitation

Defences

• Contributory negligence
• Are the claims statute barred? section 2 and section 14A of the Limitation Act
• Is any breach excluded by terms of business? Unfair Contract Terms Act

Dealing with a tax problem during a tax investigation

• What a tax enquiry, appeal or ADR can achieve to deal with a tax problem

Equitable remedies

• What are the non-tax remedies for dealing with defective and/or tax inefficient planning / advice / transactions / structures?
• The range of possible ways for remedying the transaction and/or structure
• Key differences between the remedies
• Circumstances where the Law and/or Equity may allow escape from a transaction and/or structure.
  • Scope of the vires or authority to carry out the transaction
  • Capacity;
  • Illegality including discrimination;
  • Duress and Undue Influence
  • Wrong drafting not reflecting the intention of the party which can lead to rectification;
  • Circumstances allowing rescission
  • Breach of the Three certainties and/or non-constitution of a trust;
  • Variation of a trust
  • Power of court to authorise dealings with trust property
• Mistake as to the tax consequences of what was done
• Acting outside scope of authority:Hastings-Bass, Pitt v Holt and Suckling v Furness.
• Sham
• Setting aside under the insolvency Act 1986
• How and when to issue court proceedings

Case Studies - Practical case studies and examples will be included throughout the day

The lead trainer for this Part 8 Claims course was called to the Bar in 1995, he brings a wealth of experience gained from a distinguished career that spans both the independent Bar and senior positions within leading City and international law firms. He has also worked in New York and the Cayman Islands. His practice is dispute-led, with a strong emphasis on the intersection between legal, commercial, and tax issues.

He is a specialist in tax law and its associated fields, including commercial chancery, equity, company law, cryptocurrency and digital assets, partnerships, insolvency, and professional negligence. He advises on complex investigations and appears regularly for corporate entities, individuals, and HMRC at both trial and appellate levels. Much of his work involves high-value or technically challenging disputes, often arising from cross-border transactions or cases with voluminous documentation. He also has experience advising and representing individuals in matters involving allegations of fraud, including criminal tax investigations.

The trainer was awarded a Ph.D. (University of London) in Tax Law relating to intellectual property and its exploitation. He is co-author of Taxation of Intellectual Property (Bloomsbury Publishing), A Practical Guide to Tax Disputes (Lexis) and Internet Business (Commerce and Tax) (Jordans).

He is ranked as a Leading Practitioner in Chambers UK Bar 2025 and has particular expertise in areas such as corporate structures, partnerships, intellectual property, trusts, and insolvency, allowing him to provide strategic, commercially attuned advice across a broad range of contentious and non-contentious matters.

He appears regularly in courts and tribunals across the UK, including London, Manchester, and Edinburgh, acting both as sole counsel and as part of larger legal teams.

The course co-presenter is a dedicated tax specialist 'Pupil Barrister' with a rapidly developing practice encompassing a broad range of domestic and international tax matters. He read law at the age of 17 and was a Vice Chancellor International Scholar at Cardiff University. He was called to the Bar by the age of 21. Alongside his Bar studies he was working under a pre-eminent tax silk in the country.

This course will enable a practitioner to understand:

• Professional obligations and responsibilities under the PCRT
• The range of remedies for professional errors
• Claims for and Defences relating to professional errors
• Resolving disputes: range of options: advantages and disadvantages

It will enable practitioners to answer the following questions:

• What are the professional obligations of an adviser in providing tax or accounting advice to a client?
• What to do if things go wrong with accounting or tax advice?
• What remedies are available when tax problems arise from a transaction, structure or planning?
• What is the effect of the remedy on a party to the transaction or structure?
• What is the effect of the remedy on HM Revenue & Customs?
• Can the client rectify the transaction and/or structure and if so, how?
• Can the client turn back the clock by seeking a court order for mistake, and if so, how?
• What remedies does a client have against an adviser, and what are the defences?
  • What is the remedy in contract?
  • What is the remedy in tort?
• Can a client obtain compensation if a complaint is made to a professional’s regulator?

• Delivered by highly experienced trainers
• Practical case study examples will be provided
• Detailed and comprehensive course.

This course is ideal for accounting and tax professionals who provide advice to clients and want to ensure they understand both their professional obligations and what to do when things go wrong. It is particularly suited for:

• Accountants and Chartered Accountants working in practice or in-house
• Tax advisers and consultants, including those involved in planning and structuring
• Private client, corporate tax, and trust professionals
• Legal professionals with clients receiving tax or accountancy advice
• Compliance officers and risk managers in accountancy or tax firms
• Trainees and junior professionals looking to understand professional responsibilities and risk exposure early in their careers

This comprehensive course provides practitioners with the legal, regulatory, and practical framework necessary to understand their professional responsibilities when giving tax or accounting advice — and what to do when that advice leads to problems. Blending legal practice with case study-based analysis, the course explores how professional advisers can manage risk, defend complaints, and assist clients in seeking remedies through litigation, alternative dispute resolution, or equitable relief.

The training will enable participants to assess their professional obligations, understand their legal exposure, and explore strategic solutions for their clients in respect of defective tax planning or transactional advice.