Rebecca Sheldon

Rebecca has recently advised on the following issues:

Litigation

• Prospects of success when considering appealing to the First Tier Tax Tribunal, the Upper Tax Tribunal and the County Court
• Drafting grounds of appeal
• Independent reviews
• Penalty notices and closure notices
• Failure to notify penalties
• Without prejudice communications
• Deliberate penalties
• Carelessness
• Discovery assessments

Residence, domicile & related issues

• Statutory residence test
• Split-year treatment
• The remittance basis
• Domicile and deemed domicile rules
• Citizenship
• Indefinite Leave to Remain
• Double tax treaties
• The Transfer of Assets abroad legislation
• The exceptional circumstances test

IHT

• Gift with reservation of benefit rules
• Residence nil rate band
• Transferable nil rate band
• The definition of “personal representative,” including de facto executors
• Double trust home-loan schemes
• Spousal exemption (full and domicile limited)
• Loss to donor principle
• Principal charges
• Succession rules and domicile

VAT

• VAT scope
• The availability of VAT input tax credits
• The meaning of “business purpose”
• The meaning of direct and immediate link
• Apportionment
• VAT leasing structures
• Halifax principle of abuse in a VAT context
• Law and procedure for opting to tax for VAT in the context of leases
• VAT penalties and interest
• 1614D VAT certificates
• VAT partial exemption
• The Kittel principle

SDLT & Stamp Duty

• Group relief
• Meaning of “sale”
• Meaning of “consideration”
• Higher rates for additional dwellings
• Main residence replacement relief
• Consequences of failing to stamp a document/inadequately stamping a document

Capital Gains Tax

• The availability of principal private residence relief
• Entrepreneurs relief
• Non-resident trusts and capital gains tax
• Meaning of carrying on a trade or business with a view to profit
• CGT in the context of LLPs

Trusts

• The law and procedure for appointing new trustees
• Perpetuity and accumulation issues
• IHT and CGT consequences in the context of different types of trusts, exit charges and 10-year charges
• Taxation of discretionary trusts (non-resident and UK resident beneficiaries)
• Settlement legislation
• Drafting trusts
• Certainty of trusts

Employee taxation

• IR35 rules
• Social Security Co-ordination
• A1 & E101 certificates
• The overseas daily allowance
• Bespoke rates
• Employment related securities
• Disguised remuneration rules

Chancery

• Prospects of success in challenging wills
• Intestacy rules
• Mistake in a tax context
• Undue influence (actual and presumed)
• Abuse of confidence
• Estoppel
• Involuntary bailment

Council Tax

• Council tax exemptions
• The meaning of “dwelling” for Council Tax purposes

Other

• IHT, CGT, SDLT and VAT consequences in the context of property partnership
• High Income Child Benefit Charge
• The Limitation Act 1980
• Fundamental concepts in corporate and personal insolvency in a tax context
• Advice concerning section 25A of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005
• Drafting documents
• Interpretation of will clauses
• Interpretation of deed of conveyance clauses
• Duty of care in execution of wills
• Development Land Tax Act 1976

Litigation has included:

Tax litigation

• Michael Robinson Appellant vs the Commissioners For Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2020] 
• An FTT hearing concerning the meaning of “deliberate” behaviour under Schedule 24 of FA 2007;
• An FTT hearing concerning the availability of principal private residence relief (Adams v HMRC [2020] UKFTT 56 (TC) );
• An application for permission for a late appeal to the FTT;
• Appearing for the taxpayer to object to HMRC’s application for summary judgment under Part 24 of the CPR.

Other litigation

• A 2 day multi-track hearing in the RCJ;
• Appearing for the Claimant to prevent the strike out of their claim.

Rebecca also has experience of (where appropriate):

• Settling at the court door, and;
• Negotiating settlements.

Rebecca frequently writes articles for various tax journals.

• R Sheldon, ‘HMRC v SSE Generation Limited’ 2021, British Tax Review (forthcoming)
• R Sheldon, ‘Forced to continue’ 2021, Tax Adviser
• R Sheldon, ‘Financial Reporting Council v Frasers Group PLC’ 2021, British Tax Review
• R Sheldon ‘Residence under the OECD Model’ 2020, Key Haven
• R Sheldon & J Coppin, ‘Sheiling Properties Limited’ 2020, Tax Adviser
• R Sheldon, ‘Principal private residence relief’ 2020, Key Haven Tax Review
• R Sheldon, ‘Dong Yang Electronics Case C-547/18’ 2020, British Tax Review
• R Sheldon, ‘Coyle Transport v HMRC’ 2020, British Tax Review
• R Sheldon, ‘All bets are off- Fisher v HMRC‘ 2020, Tax Adviser
• R Sheldon, ‘Arron Banks v HMRC’ 2020, Taxation
• R Sheldon, ‘Summary of the House of Lords Economic Affairs report on IR35” 2020, OSTC
• R Sheldon, ‘The remittance basis‘ 2020, OSTC
• R Sheldon, ‘Tax on overseas properties: which laws apply?‘ 2020, OSTC
• R Sheldon, ‘A stable proposition?’ 2020, Tax Adviser
• R Sheldon, ‘The tax plans of the major parties,‘ 2019, Key Haven Tax Review
• R Sheldon, ‘Limits to Upper Tribunal jurisdiction,’ 2019, Taxation
• R Sheldon, ‘All or nothing: Embiricos v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2019] UKFTT 236 (TC)’ 2019, Tax Advisor Magazine
• R Sheldon, ‘Praesto Consulting UK Ltd v HMRC [2019] EWCA Civ 353‘ 2019, British Tax Review
• R Sheldon, ‘Finance (No.2) Act 2017 Notes: Section 68: penalty for transactions connected with VAT fraud etc,’ 2017, British Tax Review
• R Feria and R Sheldon, ‘Italmoda: the birth of the principle of third-party liability for VAT fraud,’ 2016, British Tax Review

Rebecca regularly gives lectures and webinars on topical issues in tax:

• IHT update for Bloomsbury Professional Private Client event (forthcoming)
• Termination payments (in-house lecture) (1st April 2021)
• UK residence rules and Covid 19 at OSTC (31st March 2021)
• Business Rates post budget at OSTC’s Tax Snax (10th March 2021)
• VAT disbursements post Brabners LLP at OSTC (19 November 2020)
• ‘Residence under the OECD Model’ Key Haven (30th September 2020)
• ‘Covid 19 and the relaxation of UK residence rules’ Key Haven (30th September 2020)
• ‘SDLT Holiday, furlough fraud and process of crime’ (15th July 2020)
• ‘Private client tax developments’ at OSTC London seminar (13th November 2019)
• ‘The Labour Party’s Tax plans’ Key Haven Oxford Conference Speaker (1st October 2019)
• ‘VAT and Brexit’ EANOVAT Roundtable speaker (6th September 2019)
• ‘VAT update 2019 webinar‘ co-hosted with Etienne Wong for Lexis Nexis (4th July 2019)
• ‘The Appeals Process’ at OSTC Manchester seminar (22nd May 2019)
• ‘Taxation of Non-Resident Company Landlords (compliance aspects)’ led by Sarah Squires for Paul Hastings (22nd March 2019)
• ‘Taxation of trusts’ for the London Tax Society (4th March 2019)

Rebecca is involved in co-authoring several tax books, including the following:

• Co-author of Ray & McLaughlin’s “Practical Inheritance Tax Planning” (forthcoming)
• NRCGT chapter for  “Tax Planning” 2019/20
• Co-editor of Wolters Kluwer’s “A Handbook of EU VAT Legislation“
• Online moderator for James Kessler QC’s “Taxation of Charities and Non-profit Organisations“

• The Buchanan prize for gaining an “Outstanding” grade on BPTC (Lincoln’s Inn)
• The Kate Bertram First Class award for achieving a first class grade in the LL.M (University of Cambridge)
• Becker law award (University of Cambridge)
• Maria Marina award (University of Cambridge)
• The Lord Mansfield scholarship for the BPTC (Lincoln’s Inn)
• The Hardwicke award (Lincoln’s Inn)
• The Sweet & Maxwell “best final year performance” award (Durham University)
• Lady Hale prize for “best gender & law dissertation” (Durham University)
• Durham University commendation 2015 (Durham University)
• Land law prize (2nd place) (Durham University)
• Durham University commendation 2014 (Durham University)

• Revenue Bar Association
• Chancery Bar Association
• The Contentious Trusts Association (ConTrA)

Rebecca frequently volunteers for Advocate, involving both advisory work and litigation. She was named as a pro bono hero in November 2020 for her pro bono work, see here.