Expertise
Steven is a tax-qualified chartered surveyor and recognised authority on tax incentives for real estate and innovation activity. For more than 25 years he has specialised in tax incentives including capital allowances, land remediation relief/ credits, R&D tax relief/ credits and Patent Box. He held senior roles in “Big 4”, specialist boutique and national mid-tier accountancy firms before joining Gateley Capitus.
Steven writes many of the reference works used by other advisers, including:
- Bloomsbury Professional’s Capital Allowances: Transactions & Planning (including R&D tax relief and land remediation relief);
- Tolley’s Tax Planning chapter on Capital Allowances and Related Tax Reliefs on Property
- Thomson Reuters Practical Law Company’s Replying to CPSE.1 Enquiry 33 on Capital Allowances;
- LexisPSL capital allowances practical guidance and precedents for lawyers
- LexisNexis legal news Autumn Statement and Budget updates on capital allowances and R&D tax relief;
- ICAEW Tax Faculty’s TAXGuide capital allowances updates;
- RICS’s Guidance Note on Capital Allowances and Land Remediation Relief.
How do you help clients?
I enjoy helping businesses who buy or build commercial property, or undertake R&D, pay the right amount of tax by optimising the tax reliefs available to them.
My advice is high added-value and pays for itself many times over. It also reduces tax risk by making the most of routine tax reliefs which were put in place by Parliament to be claimed where the qualifying conditions are met.
Experience
- Leading teams advising major investors and occupiers on the capital allowances for substantial portfolios of property in the UK and Republic of Ireland, including individual purchases and developments with expenditure running well into hundreds of millions of pounds. Sectors include, amongst others, logistics and industrial, offices, hospitality and leisure, healthcare, data centres, purpose-built student accommodation, and renewables.
- Resolving enquiries into capital allowances claims submitted by non-specialist advisers which had been rejected by HM Revenue and needed to be revisited from first principles.
- Acting as an expert witness (formally to the court) and expert adviser (informally to one of the parties) in disputes relating to allegedly negligent advice given by other professional advisers about capital allowances matters.
- Advising on R&D tax relief across a range of fields of science and technology, including resolving HMRC enquiries.
