With HMRC more focused than ever before on recovering taxes due, we look at the most common ways in which HMRC can transfer the liability of taxes due and/or penalties to Company Officers and making them personally liable.

The Government has promised to spend an additional £79 million over the next five years to help HMRC tackle tax fraud and address compliance risks amongst wealthy taxpayers. HMRC's efforts will be a threat to businesses affected in terms of costs and expenditure in time in dealing with HRMC.

In an interesting case involving intersection of insolvency laws with a tax settlement scheme, the Supreme Court of India has on 5 January 2023 allowed assessee’s appeal against the High Court decision dismissing assessee’s writ petition which had sought direction to the Revenue department for consideration of the case of the assessee under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 (‘Scheme’).

On December 27, 2022, the IRS issued two notices providing key initial guidance for the new excise tax on corporate stock buybacks and the new corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT). Both the excise tax and the CAMT were enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act that Congress passed in August 2022.¹

El pasado 28 de diciembre de 2022 se publicó en el BOE el Real Decreto-ley 20/2022, de 27 de diciembre, de medidas de respuesta a las consecuencias económicas y sociales de la Guerra de Ucrania y de apoyo a la reconstrucción de la isla de La Palma y a otras situaciones de vulnerabilidad.

This monthly legal roundup is a compilation of our thought leadership articles and primers published in the month of December 2022 on key legal and regulatory topics. Please click on the access links to read more.

A. INSOLVENCY LAWS

1. Leasehold right: An intangible asset

2022 has been a challenging year. In addition to the continuing impact of COVID-19 and the recent relaxation measures in China, the war in Ukraine has also brought impacts on society, politics and businesses.

Dispute Resolution analysis: A large award of damages and/or equitable compensation has been made against the directors and connected companies of a company which was used to perpetrate a large scale labour supply fraud against HMRC.

Umbrella Care Ltd v Nisa and ors [2022] EWHC 3139 (Ch)

What are the practical implications of this case?

The Alberta Court of King's Bench (the Court) has confirmed that the abandonment and reclamation obligations owed to the Orphan Well Association (OWA) and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) rank in priority to claims of municipalities for unpaid property taxes in insolvency proceedings.

Corporate Australia is bracing for the long-awaited surge in insolvencies. As Australia’s largest creditor and, according to creditor reporting bureau Creditor Watch, responsible for the greatest number of company windups prior to the pandemic in 2019, the ATO can fairly be described as an influential, if not dominant, player in the restructuring and turnaround space and in corporate Australia more broadly.

The ATO effect

The massive FTX bankruptcy has rattled the crypto industry. While it may take some time for investors, investigators, and customers to learn what happened in the lead up to FTX’s demise, it seems already clear that many FTX customers will lose cryptocurrency and other digital assets (“Tokens”) they had deposited in FTX trading accounts. News reports suggest that those losses are the result of FTX’s related trading arm, Alameda Research, having borrowed FTX customer deposits using FTX’s proprietary token as collateral at an inflated valuation.