 |
 |
| |
|
| Our areas of expertise include: | Tamara Solecki (1999)Tamara has been appointed to the Serious Fraud Office List Office Panel C with effect from 5th May 2009. Principal Areas of PracticeDirect and Indirect TaxFraudTax Litigation and AdvisoryProceeds of Crime - Confiscation, Civil Recovery, Taxation under Part 6 POCAMoney LaunderingCivil LitigationHuman RightsProperty Law and HousingProfessional ExperienceProperty Law and HousingTamara has extensive experience of Housing and Property law particularly in the realm of Human Rights (Art 8) issues having acted for both private and social landlords and tenants in possession and disrepair claims. She has had major success in applying for stays of eviction warrants and possession orders granted on mandatory grounds on the basis of HR and unreasonableness. She has also had success in defending an application for strike out on the basis of no triable issue brought by a bank lender that alleged it could rely upon legal certification of a mortgage agreement as evidence that a wife joint surety had received independent advice and so was bound by the mortgage deeds she had signed with her husband. The argument that the legal certification negated any constructive notice on the part of the lender of the husband’s alleged undue influence was rejected on the basis that the mortgage company had not followed the guidelines in Bank of Scotland v Ertridge. Tamara also has experience of:
Proceeds of CrimeTamara has extensive knowledge and
experience of asset
forfeiture law
including Confiscation, Cash Forfeiture, Search and Seizure, Civil
Recovery and unrivalled experience and skill in Part 6 of Proceeds of
Crime Act 2002 (“POCA”) which allows the Serious
Organised Crime Agency (“SOCA”), previously the
Director of the Assets Recovery Agency, to use the taxation powers of
HMRC in order to levy any of the major taxes upon the income, gains,
profits and assets of individuals and companies that are suspected of
criminal action. Her experience was gained by working first on
secondment and then permanently for the Assets Recovery Agency as the
Director’s Head Taxation Barrister and advisor on the
application of the new powers. The work involved advising in an
untested new area and applying the UK Tax law system to Part 6,
including the new “source-less” income tax
assessment. Tamara tested all the major issues arising in this new area
and won all the cases in this area. Money Laundering - Apart from advising upon money laundering offences at ARA, Tamara has drafted Money Laundering procedures and acted as in-house compliance advisor in one the law firms where she worked. TaxationTamara has extensive experience of all taxes particularly in the realms of investigations, litigation and enforcement. She is an experienced advocate at the Special Commissioners tribunal and in the High Court. Her experience as the Director of ARA’s chief tax advisor was not just limited to the application of Part 6 but included advising on all aspects of tax and related matters that concerned the agency. Whilst there Tamara was able to work very closely with the HMRC tax team, advising them on the legal and strategic issues that arose from the conduct of tax investigations, and the issue of discovery assessments (estimated tax bills) upon individuals and companies. She also advised on and made court applications for section 20(3) Notices applications requesting information about the taxpayer. At times these involved complex tracing exercises of accounts to the individuals. This government experience was followed by acting on the other side of similar disputes whilst working in private practice. In particular, Tamara has wide experience of advising in investigations into back-duty owed income, CGT and corporation tax particularly in the realms of director-owned businesses and litigating the issues in the event a negotiated settlement is unsuccessful. Tamara was part of the team that advised upon and ran the continuing group litigation in the EU Advanced Corporation Tax Litigation and in particular the Foreign Income Dividends Group litigation. PAYE Fraud Litigation- Tamara has acted on behalf of company directors accused of not operating a PAYE system. Penalty- Tamara has acted on behalf of taxpayers seeking to challenge tax-geared penalties imposed by HMRC. Enforcement of Tax Debts- Significant experience of advising upon matters of international law enforcement of tax debts abroad and dealing with offshore jurisdiction. Stamp Duty- Tamara has experience of advising on Stamp duty and devised a tax scheme involving Stamp Duty published as an article Participation Agreements: The Double Duty Trap, Property Law Journal, 21 January 2002. Inheritance Tax Functions- She also dealt with the Inheritance Tax functions of the Director advising upon issues such as off-shore trusts and trust income and gains that were remitted to the UK and conducted the related advocacy including the reported case of Forbes v The Director of the Assets Recovery Agency 2005. Advisory- Challenging tax-geared penalties, emoluments, Wills, IHT and PPR. MTIC Litigation- Tamara has very good knowledge of both the issues and the strategies involved. She has particular experience of advising upon the related direct tax (in particular back-duty corporation tax) implications of a decision by HMRC to deny a VAT reclaim and of advising upon HMRC raids, search and seizure, cash forfeiture and confiscation in this area. Civil / Commercial LitigationTamara has wide experience of general civil and commercial litigation. Apart from her training in a commercial set of chambers, Tamara is an experienced advocate in the civil courts and has dealt with general contractual disputes, tax and fraud litigation, limitation and restitution issues including being involved in the Deutsche Morgan Grenfell litigation. She has drafted a number of successful applications for summary judgment and leave for service outside the jurisdiction. Injunctions-Tamara has extensive experience of injunctions, particularly freezing orders. Tamara was the first ever person to obtain a freezing order without an assessment to tax having been levied by successfully arguing before the High Court that there was an inherent jurisdiction in the court to grant a freezing order where there was no cause of action. This procedure has been confirmed as correct by the High Court recently in The Director of the Assets Recovery Agency v McCormack [2007] All ER (D) 512. ChanceryTamara has experience of Company, Insolvency and Financial Services Law, particularly Director’s duties. Property and L&T- She has advised upon and represented clients on a range of housing matters including evictions and re-possessions. Human RightsTamara has extensive experience in Human Rights as a result of her government experience particularly art 6 - see her winning case of Khan below. She is currently representing one branch of the Romanian Royal family at the ECHR. Reported CasesKhan v The
Director of the Assets Recovery Agency
[2006]
STC (SCD) 154
– a number of HR issues including whether or not section 29
tax assessment proceedings under Part 6 are within art 6.1 given the
penal context and if so, whether or not it is unfair under art 6.1 that
a taxpayer who is unfit to give instructions may still be assessed
under section 29 TMA. Forbes v The Director of the Assets Recovery Agency [2007] STC (SCD) 1). Application of Part 6 to Inheritance Tax functions including offshore provisions. The Director
of the Assets Recovery Agency
v McCormack
[2007] All ER
(D) 512. Publications/LecturesTamara
has lectured extensively at accredited
conferences including
Specialist Asset Forfeiture and Proceeds of Crime conferences on tax
and the applicability of Part 6. A
number of published articles in Taxation Journal,
Taxation Magazine
and Property Law. Her work has been referred to in the Tiley & Collison: UK Tax Guide and in Simon’s Direct tax Service. Education and Training2000 - 2001 4 Essex Court; Erskine Company Law Chambers - Pupillage LanguagesPolish (fluent); French (proficient); German (basic); Italian (basic). |