The view from London

The world of tax avoidance has always been something of an enigma, and it is becoming even more complicated. ‘The distinctions between onshore and offshore are certainly blurring,’ says Andrew Penney, international tax partner at Speechly Bircham. While specialist firms in traditional low-tax jurisdictions are coming onshore to set up in thriving tax havens such as London, with its well-known advantages for the super-rich domiciled elsewhere, ‘halfway houses’ – low-tax but well-regulated jurisdictions such as Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus – are developing within the EU. Meanwhile, a recent surge of cross-jurisdictional law firm mergers has energised the market.

Arabella Saker, private client partner at Allen & Overy, tells LB: ‘Ten years ago, offshore firms were largely reactive in their responses and passive about making changes. Now they are much more sophisticated. The market is evolving rapidly and is aided by legislators in offshore jurisdictions, who have a commercial view of the changes that are needed to keep pace with the market.’

She continues: ‘Some offshore centres have a regulatory and legal environment that outshines most onshore jurisdictions. They have regulated trust companies as a matter of course for several years, while the UK has been much slower to introduce that, so they are ahead of us in many areas.’

Dechert partner Peter Astleford adds: ‘The need to keep clients happy means firms are always looking to improve. We are keen to be seen to give a good service. The better offshore firms have changed more quickly in that respect than many onshore firms.’

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