Photo of Cathryn Williams

The London ABL and Restructuring team at Crowell & Moring feature in this month’s Business Magazine, following their arrival earlier in 2019 from the London office of Squire Patton Boggs.

The article comments on the growth of the London team, its approach to market and how the new team differentiates itself from the rest

Photo of Cathryn Williams

British Steel has entered compulsory liquidation today with EY being appointed as special managers. Is British Steel the first real victim of Brexit? First, as a result of the delay in the UK’s divorce deal, the EU delayed granting carbon credits to British Steel necessitating a £120m loan from the government to stave off significant penalties in relation to its emissions targets. The directors now cite “Brexit-related issues” as the reasons for the failure of the business, with the on-going uncertainty over future tariffs and trading terms resulting in the company’s order book from Europe falling off a cliff.
Continue Reading Steel yourselves – troubles ahead?

Photo of Paul Muscutt

A disguised remuneration scheme (DRS) is a tax avoidance scheme, many of which involve  artificial remuneration arrangements between an employer and employee. The schemes commonly provide for an employee to be partially remunerated through the company payroll system but with the majority of their remuneration taking the form of a loan. The loan is often funded via a third party (typically an off-shore trust) but, where the loans are never intended to be repaid, HMRC treat the monies advanced as taxable income.
Continue Reading Disguised Remuneration Schemes and the Loan Charge

Photo of Cathryn Williams

On 10 April 2019, the government launched an Independent Review into the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit. This comes at a time when the Business Select Committee has called for the Big 4 accountancy firms to be split up and also reports in the news that following the failures of Carillion, Patisserie Valerie, Interserve and others, shareholders are going to give very close scrutiny to the performance of auditors and not merely rubber-stamp their re-appointment at annual general meeting.
Continue Reading Call for Views on the Quality and Effectiveness of Audit

Photo of Paul Muscutt

There are many issues that can hinder the collection of book debts and insolvency (of either the creditor or the debtor) is usually the catalyst for most them. Following an insolvency, those attempting to collect book debts are often faced with a number of reasons as to why a debtor can’t or won’t pay, including the set-off / contra arrangements, product warranty concerns, defective or non-delivery of goods or services and last, but not least, retention of title (“RoT”) clauses.
Continue Reading Retention of title – the unpaid seller v. the asset based lender

Photo of Cathryn Williams

In the recently reported case of Misra Ventures Ltd v LDX International Group LLP [2018] EWCA Civ 3030,  the UK Court of Appeal considered what constituted a genuine and serious cross-claim sufficient to justify an injunction restraining the presentation of a winding up petition.
Continue Reading UK Court of Appeal considers what amounts to a genuine and serious cross-claim