Tax advice and tax planning

Tax issues arise in practically every transaction undertaken in the shipping sector. Whether it be highly structured tax-based lease finance transactions, for which our tax team is acknowledged as a market leader, or more everyday issues such as the social security aspects of crewing arrangements, our tax team has the knowledge of the shipping industry that means that it is unusual that an issue has not been considered before.

We are very familiar with the tax-favoured financing structures in the jurisdictions in which we operate, for example the CV in the Netherlands, KG in Germany and French, Chinese, Greek, Italian and UK tax leases.

Our tax team has advised clients on the tax aspects of stock market flotations of shipping companies, the establishment of shipping funds, the structuring and restructuring of tax-based lease finance transactions as well as the impact of tonnage taxes across the EU and the interaction between EU law and domestic law in such areas as VAT and state aid to the shipping industry.

The extent to which tax advice can shape the nature of a transaction should not be underestimated and our experience is that the transactions producing the best results for clients are often those where the tax advice is sought almost before the commercial advice as it enables possible pitfalls to be avoided at an early stage.

As one would expect, the tax team interacts with the rest of the practice, as can be seen from the praise given Chambers UK (2009 edition):

“Long fêted for its asset finance practice, this “perennially excellent” firm continues to be one of the leaders in its field. A large group of industry specialists works alongside the tax section to offer a full-service asset finance practice.”