Umbrellas are useful at this time of the year, as the seasons change and the misty drizzle returns. But the right umbrella is critical: if it isn’t sturdy and wind-resistant it may not keep you dry. The same is true of umbrella companies that are used by agency workers, contractors, and self-employed professionals to manage their payroll administration.

In what has been hailed as a ‘return to common sense’ by solicitors, the Court of Appeal has ruled that a solicitor is not liable for a building society’s losses after paying more than £180,000 of mortgage monies over to an imposter. Lenders may disagree.

If solicitors fail to do their job properly, with the result that a fraudulent transaction is not carried out as intended, are the solicitors still liable?

In the continuing climate of economic uncertainty, with grant funding cut back severely and traditional, long-term funding options all but dried up, housing associations have embraced bond issuance as an effective way to secure long-term finance at competitive rates.

A family investment company (FIC) is a tax-efficient vehicle allowing protection of, and control over, wealth transferred out of an individual’s estate.

Nathan Talbott, Head of Commercial Litigation, and specialising in complex financial, tax and corporate disputes, dissects the recent report by the Committee of Public Accounts on the state of our tax system, and shares his thoughts on what HMRC needs to do to rebuild public trust.

The ability to make and receive payments is critical to businesses and individuals. How we do this has undergone enormous change over the last decade.

Over the last year there have been reports of newly built properties being effectively worth nothing after just six years due to excessive ground rent charges.

Buying any business is a daunting prospect – even if you have plenty of experience under your belt. Buying into a sector where the one of the main variables is out of your control, namely the weather, can be particularly unnerving.

How does a taxpayer determine which of its supplies are exempt, which are taxable, and which are zero-rated or outside the scope of VAT?