South: Moore Blatch and Taylorcocks join forces to help those stung by ineffective investments

Two of the south’s leading professional firms have launched a joint initiative to help businesses and individuals who have been stung by tax avoidance schemes. 

Accountants from Taylorcocks and lawyers from Moore Blatch are working to help those who were wrongly advised to take part in these schemes and who subsequently lost money.

The initiative comes after changes in the law which have seen a number of tax avoidance schemes closed down and increased activity from HMRC to clamp down on tax avoidance schemes.

“This has meant a significant rise in the number of professional negligence claims against those financial advisers and accountants who advised their clients to enter these schemes,’’ said Mark Osgood from Moore Blatch.

The law firm has one of the largest dedicated professional negligence teams in the country and is currently handling a range of tax avoidance cases with losses ranging from £20,000 to £500,000.

“Taylorcocks is working to help people correct their tax position and reduce the losses where possible while we are focusing on establishing liability, evaluating loss and taking legal action where appropriate,’’ said Osgood.

Taylorcocks is an Accountancy Age Top 100 firm with the tax team headed by Paul Taylor who is a specialist in complex tax issues.

He said: “The kind of schemes involved include those where investors thought they were investing in a tax-efficient scheme to save tax and produce a return on their investment but sadly they have lost out on both benefits."

While unravelling investments of this kind can be complicated, Osgood said that those affected do not have to accept the losses.