Graham Aaronson QC is currently leading a study into the desirability and feasibility of a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR).

The ECJ has confirmed that in purchasing a portfolio of defaulted receivables, at its own risk, for a price below their face value the transferee, GFKL, was not making a supply of services for consideration.

HMRC has published two early-stage consultations relating to areas it has identified as high risk. The taxation of unauthorised unit trusts (UUTs) is covered in the first, but the document is mainly focused on obtaining information on the current use of UUTs at this stage.

HMRC has published draft legislation for consultation aimed at ensuring that persons (whether companies or individuals) cannot benefit from double taxation agreements (DTA) entered into by the UK where the claim to benefit is part of a scheme, one of the main purposes of which is to reduce liability to UK taxation.

On 26 January 2011, the European Commission blocked the proposed merger between Greek air carriers Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air, ruling that the merger would have led to a "quasi-monopoly" on the domestic air transport market.

As a leading firm in the built environment industry, we have seen the industry evolve through previous economic and political shockwaves, most notably the effect of the global financial crisis in 2008.

The High Court has rejected an application for disclosure of documents containing the underlying instructions to a law firm acting for a party funding a transaction.

The decision of the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) to overturn the Tribunal below in the case of BAA Limited, to disallow VAT recovery for certain takeover fees, will have come as an unpleasant surprise to those incurring substantial costs on corporate acquisitions.

The Upper Tribunal has held that the nondiscrimination article in the UK/US double tax treaty overrode the UK domestic provisions in question (the pre-2000 group relief rules) as these were capable of operating in a cross-border context without the restrictions on the nationality of the parent company which these provisions then contained.

The United Kingdom public have voted to leave the European Union. The next two years will see a period of negotiated withdrawal - with the UK Government deciding which parts of EU law to adopt into domestic legislation.

The First Tier Tribunal here looked at a capital gains mitigation scheme involving matching futures and, by construing the legislation purposively and looking at the transactions as a whole, determined that a loss suffered as a result of the reduction in value of shares was not allowable.

Major changes are taking place at Ashurst at a global level as the firm reviews its management and equity structures – meanwhile, the firm's Spanish office is also taking steps to alter its working practices to maximise cross-selling opportunities.

The former director of a trustee company was under a duty to provide the company with a copy of information he had given to APRA regarding the company.

New rules are proposed to increase the amount of the remittance basis charge in certain circumstances and to allow tax-free remittances for the purposes of investing in qualifying businesses.

In Dome Resources NL v Silver [2008] NSWCA 322, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered this limitation in the context of a challenge to the validity of a retirement deed, which it held to be valid and effective.

This article provides an update on the issue of whether a public authority is permitted to make a copy of documents, otherwise protected by copyright, when responding to a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"), whose right of access to information held by public authorities comes into force in January 2005.

In this first episode of a two-part series,?Ashurst's?Simon Williams, Counsel for Ashurst digital assets and financial innovation team, is joined by?Thomas Hyun,?Director of Cryptocurrency Compliance at Forensic...

Issuers of short, medium and long term international debt securities have the option of utilising a new form of global note, known as the New Global Note or NGN.

The Court of Appeal (Lloyd, Moses and Etherton LLJ) has issued a further decision in this case, dismissing the entirety of HMRC's appeal in relation to the validity of new non-UK loss relief claims made by Marks & Spencer, the timing of such claims and the quantification of the losses.