Biography:

Sean is an independent specialist with 25 years of experience in stamp duty, including 20 years at two Big Four firms. He served as the head of UK stamp taxes at a Big Four firm for five years. Currently, he is the chair of the professional body of stamp duty practitioners, The Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group, which has over 220 members. In addition to his professional roles, Sean is the editor and author of the leading textbook Sergeant and Sims on Stamp Taxes, a position he has held since 2008. He also authored the Law Society’s SDLT Handbook: A Guide for Residential Conveyancers. Sean is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and a non-practising barrister. He also contributes to TolleyGuidance.

Biography:

Emma Haley is a senior associate solicitor at leading private client firm, Boodle Hatfield LLP, renowned for providing first-class and practical legal advice to wealthy clients around the world.

Emma has many years experience in dealing with all aspects of wills, probate, capital taxation and succession planning as well as UK and offshore trusts. Emma currently heads up a technical know-how team and is a regular writer and lecturer on estate planning and inheritance tax and also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Biography:

Josie advises on all aspects of UK employment law, acting for individuals, charities and businesses and advising on both contentious and non-contentious matters. Josie has experience in litigation involving equal pay, disability discrimination and sex discrimination. Josie also has experience in Data Subject Access Requests, preparing policies and staff handbooks, drafting contracts of employment and advising in relation to settlement agreements.

Biography:

John is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor, who trained with one of EY’s predecessor firms. That training contract was followed by a long career at EY, specialising in integrated US/UK income, capital, and estate tax planning.

Part of that practice at EY involved advising international professional partnerships conducting business in the UK. Expertise in this specialist area led to John being recruited to go ‘in-house’ with one of the leading US law firms and spending eight years as Regional Tax Director (EMEA) for White & Case. This was followed by a return to public practice, first with Frank Hirth and latterly with Blick Rothenberg.

John is a member of both HMRC’s Expat Tax Forum and HMRC’s Expat/NIC Strategy Group. He has lectured extensively on US tax topics. His publishing credits include being a member of the writing team on “A Guide to the UK/US Tax Treaty” (LexisNexis 2003), and a past contributor to the ‘Working in the UK’ and ‘Working Overseas’ sections of Tolley’s Tax Planning.  John has also had articles published in “Tax Planning International Review”, “Tax Management International Journal” and “The BNA Daily Tax Report”.

Outside work, John’s interests include photography, fly fishing, playing tournament bridge and learning to play the piano.

Biography:

Márton works as a tax manager at PKF Hungary. He is most focused on indirect tax issues however he is also involved in income tax and transfer pricing consultancy. He is following up with the VAT-related cases of the CJEU and entrusted with the publication of the updates on the firm’s website. Márton gained experience in the Hungarian tax administration procedure as well, as a former officer.

Biography:

Richard Dew's practice is a barrister, whose practice is focused on Wills, Estates and Trusts and related professional negligence. His practice is predominantly litigation, and he is frequently involved in large and complex claims. He also advises and represents in Court of Protection matters and provides expert advice in respect of tax and tax planning (principally capital taxation). Chambers UK 2014 describe him as having "superb powers of analysis," and that he "instantly impresses with his intellect. He is excellent with clients and is just as capable on his feet as when handling the paperwork." Previous editions say he is  a "'superb junior,' who combines strong academic credentials … with a flair for litigation and ADR". He is a member of STEP and ACTAPS. He is an author of Parker's Will Precedents and of Tolley's IHT Planning as well as a contributor to numerous books and articles.

Biography:

Sarah specialises in all aspects of real estate fund taxation including fundraising and advising on equity investments into real estate.

Her experience includes:

• complex high-value real estate transactions;
• structuring a variety of different investment platforms domiciled in a diverse range of jurisdictions; and
• acting for institutional investors and private equity real estate funds.

Sarah is a member of the Investment Association's Tax Committee and the Stamp Taxes Practitioners Group.

Biography:

Claire has specialised in employment tax for over 20 years. During this time she has worked with a wide range of clients from owner managed businesses to listed companies. Claire is currently a Partner at Azets and has previously worked in other professional firms, as well as in industry.

Biography:

Career:
1994-now
PKF Munkebo Vindelev

• Audit and assurance
• Tax and counselling
• Responsible for company’s Caseware Platform
• Auditor of small and medium-sized companies
• Auditor of a number of foreign owned subsidiaries
• Auditor of companies with activities abroad

Education:

• 2011 Appointed State Authorised Public Accountant
• 2007 Master of Science in Business Administration and Auditing Copenhagen Business School
• 2001 Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (Financial and Management Accounting), Copenhagen Business School

Biography:

John is a chartered accountant and independent training consultant, who lectures for the major trainers, professional bodies, accountancy practices and publishers. He speaks on auditing, financial reporting, ethics, company law and anti-money laundering. Previously, he has been the technical partner for a top thirty firm of accountants and Head of CharterGroup, the accountancy network.

He has spoken for ICAEW's, highly successful, Audit & Assurance Faculty and Financial Reporting Faculty roadshows, for many years.

As well as writing for Audit & Beyond and various other publications, John is author of Core Auditing Standards for Practitioners. John is also a member of the Audit & Assurance Faculty's Practitioner Services Panel.

John finds writing about himself in the third person unsettling.

Biography:

Zoe Andrews is PSL Counsel and Head of Tax Knowledge at Slaughter and May. She has extensive experience of UK corporate tax and takes a special interest in international tax policy and developments. With her team, she supports all aspects of the firm’s tax practice.

Email: zoe.andrews@slaughterandmay.com; tel: 020 7090 5017

Biography:

Artur Olszewski is a Director at PwC and former OECD Tax Policy Advisor. He advises platforms, financial institutions, and digital asset intermediaries on tax transparency regimes (CARF/DAC8, CRS, MRDP/DAC7) and digital services taxes.

Artur previously served as Corporate Counsel (International Tax) at Expedia Group. While at the OECD, he co-authored several global tax transparency standards and contributed to the design of the GloBE Information Return (GIR) and the GIR MCAA. He remains an active member of the Business at OECD Tax Committee and is a frequent speaker and author on international taxation and transparency initiatives.

Artur is a US-qualified lawyer (New York) and a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS).

Biography:

Emma advises on all aspects of employment law including unlawful discrimination, whistleblowing, equal pay, unfair dismissal, breach of contract, restrictive covenants, protecting confidential information, boardroom disputes and claims under TUPE. She has experience in obtaining and executing interim injunctions for breach of confidentiality and/or restrictive covenant provisions. She also leads diversity issues for Charles Russell Speechlys employment team.

With a strong record in negotiating and resolving complex employment disputes, Emma is considered a skilled deal broker. She is a specialist in contentious discrimination matters and has significant experience in handling high value contentious claims for employers and senior individuals. Emma acts for employers, employees and trade unions. Her client base is broad, both in terms of the range of work and the sectors in which they operate. Amongst these clients are a number of growing, dynamic businesses (including UK start-ups), as well as long established financial institutions, and senior executives.

Emma speaks regularly on diversity issues, edits the diversity sections of Lawtel Employment Precedents and Company Policy Documents and certain diversity sections of Tolley Guidance Employment Tax online, and regularly contributes to article in HR and legal publications as well as comments in the national press on diversity issues.

Experience

• Successfully defended a tribunal claim of race and religious discrimination against a household name private members club. Added complications arose as the matter was reported in the press before judgment was given. An appeal to the Employment Appeals Tribunal was rejected.
• Advised and represented a large London retailer in relation to a multi-discrimination employment tribunal complaint (direct, indirect, victimisation and harassment based on race and religion). The claim was complicated by the variety of allegations and the worker's status; there were three preliminary hearings before a full merits hearing was listed. There were also four named Respondents to the claim. Successfully settled the action for a nominal sum, with agreement that all allegations were retracted and not repeated despite the action continuing against the other Respondents.
• Advised and negotiated service agreements for the senior management team of the seller on a multimillion pound share sale of a UK business.
• A major legal victory for a pilot employed by a household name airline, in a landmark case against the airline for indirect age discrimination. The decision has industry-wide ramifications for airlines and other organisations which provide a combination of long-term permanent health insurance or similar income protection payments via third party and self-insurance.

Biography:

Alan Powell is a specialist excise duties consultant, formerly a Policy official within HMCE’s HQ teams and a Big 4 tax Team.

He is an excise duties advisor to the Chartered Institute of Taxation, honorary advisor to the UK Warehousing Association, and founded the British Distillers Alliance as a conduit for consultation with, and representation to, Government bodies and to assist and advise on technical matters.

He is a Chartered Tax Advisor, a Fellow of the Institute of Indirect Taxation, and sits on the high-level Joint Alcohol and Tobacco Consultative group with HMRC and the Indirect Taxes Committee of the CIOT.

In his 65th year, he is trying to retire.

Biography:

Penny is a highly respected pensions lawyer. She advises individuals, employers and pension trustees on their pension arrangements. She works closely with Irwin Mitchell LLP's employment team on crossover areas such as employers' duties for pension compliance (including auto-enrolment), employer pension committees, or pension tax changes.  She advises on how an employer can change their pension plan to maximise the benefit they and their workforce receive from it.  She also works closely with Irwin Mitchell LLP's private wealth team on pension issues such as the impact of the proposed changes to how inheritance tax applies to pension savings, as well as advice on small self administered schemes (SSASs) and what happens to pensions when someone moves abroad. Recently she's been looking at the impact of the new FOG (non-domicile) legislation on income from overseas pensions. From the corporate perspective, Penny advises employers and banks on questions over the Pension Schemes Act 2021 and the extended powers which this Act gives to The Pensions Regulator to enforce against anyone who is in involved in the mis-management of defined benefit, final salary pension plans. She also now regularly advises on the use of surplus and is interested in how employers and trustees have to balance their various interests over how it is used. With this, the Government is trying to use pension surplus as a way to grow the UK economy. Finally, Penny sits as a professional trustee for various organisations.

Biography:

Rebecca has dedicated her legal career to estate planning and succession law. She is an Accredited Specialist in Wills & Estate Law and holds a Masters in Laws (Wills & Estates).

As a partner at Tetlow Legal in Canberra, Rebecca regularly advises private clients on complex estate planning, including business owners, high net worth clients, blended families, trusts and superannuation.

Rebecca has extensive experience with probate and the administration of estates, as well as estate disputes including family provision claims and contested probate matters.

Rebecca has been actively involved in law reform through the Elder Law & Succession Law Committee of her local Law Society as well as the national Law Council. She has regularly been asked to present to professional bodies and appear in the media on topics of estates and elder abuse.

Biography:

Malcolm Gunn is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and has over 50 years of experience in advising on all aspects of UK tax, although he has a particular interest in capital taxes. For 16 years, he was an editor of the weekly magazine Taxation. In 2004, he left the magazine to concentrate on consultancy and advisory work.

Malcolm Gunn continues to contribute frequently to technical publications on UK tax, including a chapter each year in Tolley's Tax Planning on Relevant Property Trusts. He is the current author of Tolley's Inheritance Tax and joint author with Julie Butler of Stanley's UK Taxation of Farmers & Landowners. He is also general editor of Foster's Inheritance Tax, and a consultant with Butler and Co chartered accountants.

Malcolm Gunn was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award in the LexisNexis 2004 Tax Awards and is a member of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers.

Biography:

Hira is a Real Estate Tax Partner within BDO’s award winning Real Estate and Construction Group. He has specialised in property taxation for almost all his professional career and currently advises a wide range of clients in relation to their UK and global property interests. A particular specialism is UK and overseas collective investment schemes, both regulated and unregulated.

Hira is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and has sat on the Tax Committees of the British Property Federation and INREV.