Summary
An accountancy firm was held not to have been in breach of duty in the tax advice it gave to a former client, or by not pointing out that the client might be non-UK domiciled and by not recommending that the client should seek tax advice from a ‘non-dom’ specialist in the circumstances.
Background
The appellant (HB), a firm of chartered accountants, provided accountancy services and general tax advice to a client (M), who sold his shares in a company at a substantial gain in April 2005. Business asset taper relief was available in respect of the disposal, resulting in an effective capital gains tax (CGT) rate of 10%.
It was alleged that M had a domicile of origin in Iran for tax purposes, and could have avoided CGT entirely on the disposal of his shares by entering into a ‘bearer warrant scheme’ (BWS). A claim was made that HB
