Robert O'Hare

Connect: Read more about Robert O'Hare
Firm/Organization: Squire Patton Boggs
Blogs: Brexit Legal, Compensation and Benefits Global Insights, eSQUIRE Global Crossings, Global IP & Technology Law Blog

Latest Articles

Cryptoassets are coming out of the shadows. Slowly but surely. Over the past decade or so, perhaps principally driven by huge gains (and losses) in the value of Bitcoin, there has been a palpable dawning recognition that cryptoassets, and the distributed ledger technologies (DLT) that underpin and encrypt them (such as Blockchain), are here to stay. Mainstream financial services are testing (and increasingly grappling to control) the investment market. At the same time, the rapid…
The recent case of Farnborough Airport Properties Company and another v HMRC is noteworthy for the light it shines on the dimly lit and often difficult interaction between tax law and insolvency. The issues The two companies operating Farnborough Airport (the host of ‘the largest industry event on the aerospace calendar’) were members of the same ‘group’ of companies as a third company, Piccadilly Hotels 2 Limited (“Piccadilly”).  For tax purposes, all members of a…
The report resulting from the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (the Taylor Review), ‘Good Work‘, was finally published on 11 July 2017. The Taylor Review’s primary focus was new ways of working, the ‘gig’ economy, worker rights and responsibilities, and employer freedoms and obligations. Although tax was not (formally at least) within its remit, it was inevitable that in compiling their report the Taylor Review would encounter issues of taxation… indeed, such…
The Conservative manifesto, ‘Forward, Together’, unveiled late last week by Theresa May, was notable rather less for reiterating commitments to traditional, small government, Conservative principles of ‘low tax’ and ‘better regulation’ and rather more for its embrace of social inclusion, identifying a “need [for] a partnership between the individual and the wider nation, between private sector and public service, and the strong leadership only government can provide”. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, most of the attention…
Alongside the almost complete reversal of recent cuts in the main rate of corporation tax (returning it to 26% by 2020-21 – a rate not seen since 2011 or, rather, the time of the last Labour government), the proposal to introduce a so-called ‘Robin Hood’ tax on financial derivatives (a proposal mired by its own complexity in Europe and described in the past by the Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as “madness”), and promises to…
A client asked me a pertinent question yesterday, along the lines of: “Do the pensions changes announced in the last Budget still stand given that they are not yet enshrined in legislation and Parliament is soon to be dissolved?” The short and unhelpful answer is: “It depends…”  But what exactly does it depend upon? By way of a reminder the main pensions changes relate to a reduction in the money purchase annual allowance, a new…
In a recent interview with Tax Analysts, Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, was asked how concerned he was that the UK will end up going the tax haven route following withdrawal from the EU.  He said: “The U.K. wants companies to pay taxes — not much tax, because they want to be very competitive, and they have a very competitive system. Now, can they go much further…
Originally mooted by Theresa May during the hustings for the leadership of the Conservative Party (see our report), the proposal to enable employee representation on the Boards of UK companies finally assumed the status of formal government policy on Wednesday (5th October 2016) with the measure being specifically mentioned in the Prime Minister’s closing speech to the Conservative Party conference.  The policy is likely to form part of various measures designed to enhance corporate governance…