Tax

Members of Fountain Court Chambers combine specialist tax expertise with broader practices across corporate, insolvency, employment and restructuring offerings, and also leveraging the set’s top-tier banking and finance experience. 

Drawing on its strength as a leading commercial litigation set, together with deep Chancery, offshore and corporate litigation expertise, Fountain Court is well placed to advise and act in major tax avoidance and transfer pricing disputes. Members have longstanding experience representing HM Revenue & Customs at both junior and senior levels, including in government panel litigation, and have acted for HMRC in substantial cases such as Re AstraZeneca plc v HMRC and Reed Employment v HMRC. This experience reflects the set’s ability to manage large‑scale, legally and factually complex tax litigation involving lengthy time estimates and extensive case management. 

Recent tax avoidance matters include ‘gold bullion’ schemes and umbrella employment. Members are also used to dealing with the overlap between tax and employment litigation, illustrated by their work in IR35 cases involving TV presenters such as Adrian Chiles, and Eamonn Holmes, as well as employment status cases involving high-profile individuals such as Sir Bradley Wiggins. 

Our work includes cases relating to: 

• Corporate tax 
• Fraud 
• Negligence claims relating to tax advice 
• Personal tax
• Tax avoidance schemes – including film finance arrangements
• Transfer pricing
• VAT / indirect tax