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

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 the 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 the court to authorise dealings with trust property
• Mistake as to the tax consequences of what was done
• Acting outside the 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

Called to the Bar in 1995, this trainer brings a wealth of experience gained from a distinguished career spanning the independent Bar and senior positions within leading City and international law firms, including work in both New York and the Cayman Islands. His dispute-led practice places a strong emphasis on the intersection of legal, commercial and tax issues.

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. Appearing regularly for corporate entities, individuals, and HMRC at both trial and appellate levels, much of his work involves high-value or technically challenging disputes. Those often arise from cross-border transactions or cases with voluminous documentation. He has experience advising and representing individuals in matters involving allegations of fraud, including criminal tax investigations.

This course leader was awarded a PhD (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).

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

A subject matter expert, 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. Reading law at the age of 17, he was a Vice-Chancellor International Scholar at Cardiff University. Called to the Bar at age 21, and alongside his Bar studies, he worked under a pre-eminent tax silk in the country.

As an introductory to intermediate course, training:

• Provides a practical review of the responsibilities and duties of professional advisers within the accountancy and tax professions.
• Enables advisers to understand the range of potential available remedies when transactions and structures go wrong through analysis of practical case studies.

Sessions enable practitioners to understand:

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

Enabling 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?
• The remedies available when tax problems arise from a transaction, structure or planning
• 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 clients rectify transactions and/or structure - if so, how?
• Can the client turn back the clock by seeking a court order for a mistake? If so, how?
• What remedies does a client have against an adviser? 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 regulator?

Training is ideal for accounting and tax professionals who advise clients and want to understand their professional obligations and the appropriate course of action when things go wrong.

Sessions are 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, 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

At Redcliffe Training, we provide practitioners with a comprehensive course that covers the legal, regulatory, and practical framework necessary to understand professional responsibilities when giving tax or accounting advice. Sessions cover what to do when advice leads to problems.

Blending legal practice with case study-based analysis, this course explores how professional advisers can manage risk, defend complaints, and assist clients in seeking remedies through litigation, alternative dispute resolution, or equitable relief.

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