Tax warranty and indemnity insurance

Tax insurance provides an insight into taxpayer sentiment – what concerns taxpayers what activities are they undertaking and what will they do next? For example concerns may relate to a particular subjectivity in the law: does a ‘business’ exist for the purposes of the Ramsay v CRC [2013] STC 1764 case? Is a liquidation caught by the ‘phoenix companies’ targeted anti-avoidance rule (TAAR)?

With Brexit on the horizon and various challenging tax changes coming into force – IR35 for the private sector and the latest EU directive on administrative co-operation (DAC6) spring to mind – 2020 was always going to be an interesting year. In the first month or so the outlook was positive and it seemed reasonable to anticipate another year of buzzing corporate activity. Many requests for warranty and indemnity (W&I) and tax insurance were being made reflecting readily available capital and strong global mergers and...