Overview
Josh accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ practice, including business taxation, personal tax matters, international tax, and environmental taxation.
Josh has extensive experience in the sphere of business taxation, beginning with his four years as a solicitor in the London office of a leading US law firm advising on the tax aspects of cross-border M&A, debt and equity financing, and restructuring transactions. Since joining Chambers, he has built upon this expertise and has also been developing particular interests in environmental taxation (including the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), tax enforcement and insolvency proceedings, and judicial review.
Recent instructions include:
- joining the counsel team representing HMRC before the Supreme Court in a landmark capital allowances case (Orsted v HMRC, led by Elizabeth Wilson KC and Angharad Parry KC)
- advising taxpayers (led) in a number of significant judicial review claims brought against a variety of HMRC decisions
- participating (led) in multiple landfill tax appeals, including drafting grounds of appeal and assisting cases prepare for future hearings
- successfully representing a haulage business in its appeal against HMRC’s refusal to allow input tax recovery (D Nuttall UK Ltd v HMRC, led by Richard Vallat KC)
- acting as sole counsel for businesses in ongoing VAT disputes with HMRC
- securing in court an important exemption to an ex parte freezing order brought by HMRC against a company, and subsequently negotiating the order’s eventual release
- representing multiple companies in winding-up petitions brought by HMRC
- advising on substantial transfer pricing and unallowable purpose litigation
- successfully representing HMRC regarding the interpretation of VAT legislation passed during the COVID-19 pandemic (JD Wetherspoon plc v HMRC, led by Ben Elliott)
- advising on R&D relief, including in the context of a professional negligence claim where the advice contributed to a favourable settlement
- advising the owners of a business on the negotiation of the tax covenant and warranties for the sale of their company
- providing written advice on SDLT, inheritance tax, and the interpretation of wills
He is happy to accept instructions under the Public Access scheme.
A copy of Josh’s privacy notice can be found here.
Career
- 2022 – 2023 – Pupillage, Pump Court Tax Chambers
- 2018 – 2022 – Associate Solicitor, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
- 2016 – 2018 – Trainee Solicitor, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Education
- 2015 – 2016 – Kaplan Law School – LPC (Distinction)
- 2014 – 2015 – Trinity College, Oxford – BCL (Distinction)
- 2011 – 2014 – Downing College, Cambridge – BA (Law) (Double First)
Scholarship and Prizes
- Clarendon-Beloff Scholarship (Trinity College, Oxford)
- Foundation Scholar and Senior Harris Scholar (Downing College, Cambridge)
- Graeme Hill Prize for Especial Distinction in Law Part II (Cambridge)
- Platt Prize for Especial Distinction in Law Part IB (Cambridge)
- Sweet and Maxwell Prize for highest overall 1st in Law Part IA (Cambridge)
Memberships
Revenue Bar Association (RBA)
VAT Practitioner’s Group (VPG)
