Indirect taxes

VAT Consulting

Advising clients on how they interpret and execute the increasingly complex rules and regulations relating to VAT is the most significant aspect of the work the indirect tax practice undertakes for clients.  It represents the core aspect of our business and is often the starting point of our engagement with clients and the foundation from which we go on to provide a variety of other services.  Our work for clients covers a wide range of sectors and industries and necessitates a deep understanding of the UK VAT system, the EU framework and the variety of rules and regulations in jurisdictions across the globe.  The support we provide to clients ranges from the deep technical to the practical operational and involves working closely with clients, our VAT/GST specialists in other territories and the tax authorities.  PwC is renowned for the depth and quality of the advice we provide and our VAT advisory practice is the largest and most successful practice in the UK.

Martin Blanche

Legal/Disputes

The Indirect Tax Disputes team, at just under twenty lawyers and litigation specialists, is one of the largest teams in the country.  The team deals with disputes in all of the indirect taxes - VAT, excise duties, customs duties, insurance premium tax and environmental taxes.  

The focus of the team’s work is far removed from a simple ‘tax litigation’ offering.  Whilst it has a long history of success before the courts (and recent cases include Ealing Borough Council at the Court of Justice of the EU, St George’s University and Hippodrome Casino at the Tax Tribunal and  a successful judicial review for Phoenix Group), the emphasis is on resolution of our client’s indirect tax disputes or, better still, preventing disputes occurring in the first place. 

Frequently clients require help where they have discovered an issue within their indirect tax affairs and before there is any involvement from HMRC. The team, working within the realms of legal advisory privilege, are able to investigate and advise on resolutions. Our experience is that this early engagement helps keep control over the flow of information and significantly increases the prospect of the matter ever becoming a dispute.

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David Anderson

Operational Indirect Tax

One growing area the team works in is Indirect Tax Operations, focusing on helping clients deliver tax - digitally, strategically and operationally.  

These roles include assisting clients to define and execute all aspects of their strategy for indirect tax management, designing and implementing tax governance and control frameworks, working on process improvement and automation projects, working with the indirect tax technology, data, systems and tax engine teams, and the review and provision of assurance services for our clients across the indirect taxes.

Tom Birch

Compliance

Our Tax Compliance team is a leading provider of technology enabled compliance and integrated advisory services, working across an unrivalled range of prestigious clients. The variety of work, size of our team and focus on learning and development brings about opportunities to specialise in particular industries or technical areas.

A key part of this team is our global Indirect tax compliance, providing services to many of the firm’s largest and most important clients. We provide clients with Indirect tax compliance services globally with a key focus in EMEA.

Our team is agile and open to new ways of working. The investment in our people, automation and robotics enables us to be at the forefront of change and innovation. Together, we produce technical excellence, innovative solutions and an outstanding client experience.

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Steve Couchman

Technology

Technology is at the core of everything we do at PwC. Within our larger Indirect Tax team there are three strands of technology expertise. The first is in how we implement tax technology products and systems to achieve business goals and provide guidance to clients on this piece - essentially expertise on how to use the various types of Indirect Tax relevant technologies. The second strand is where PwC develops its own ITX technology products, which includes the complete enterprise software development lifecycle from product management, through to software engineering, DevOps, QA & verification, deployment and product support.  The third is supporting organisations with their entire tax technology transformation strategy, architecture, execution and maintenance, ensuring the best outcomes possible.

Tom Birch

Artificial Intelligence

AI is transforming the way indirect tax specialists work, offering new possibilities for automation, accuracy, and efficiency.

Generative AI will be the biggest game-changer for tax professionals for a generation.

Generative AI uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to enhance various aspects of an indirect tax professional’s work. AI can assist tax professionals to generate insights and recommendations based on large volumes of data, delivering richer information that will enable them to identify solutions faster and more accurately, helping tax professionals to keep up with the changing tax laws and regulations across different jurisdictions and sectors, reducing the risk of errors and penalties.

PwC is at the forefront of embracing generative AI technology through its strategic alliance with OpenAI and Harvey.

Together, PwC, OpenAI and Harvey are working to create highly sophisticated foundation models to help accelerate complex tasks, and provide richer, more personalised insights for tax professionals operating in a human led, AI powered future. PwC’s indirect tax practice is harnessing this technology to bring to life what human-led tech-powered means for us and our clients.

Chris James (UK)

Customs & International Trade

Our specialists can help evolve and transform your business strategy, to efficiently manage customs costs, deal with compliance and integrate the right technology solutions.

Our team includes experienced customs specialists and brokers, industry specialists, lawyers, and former HMRC officials. They will work with your organisation to provide insights and advice enabling you to navigate the complexities of customs regulations, and risks.

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Claire McCaffray

Environmental Taxes

PwC’s environmental tax specialists can help clients to understand the increasingly complex requirements of both existing (e.g. Plastic Packaging Tax, Landfill Tax, Aggregates Levy, Air Passenger Duty and Climate Change Levy) and developing (e.g. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms) environmental taxes and measures and their associated impact on business costs and supply chains. 

Our team, which includes industry specialists, UK qualified lawyers, and ex-HMRC officers, are able to provide tax consultancy advice, compliance, and dispute resolution services in relation to environmental taxes.

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Caroline Brooks

• Automotive - Aidan Coleman aidan.p.coleman@pwc.com
  
• Consumer Markets - Jo Bello jo.bello@pwc.com
  
• Deals - David Denyer david.denyer@pwc.com
• Financial Services - Anthony Brooker antony.brooker@pwc.com
• Hospitality and Leisure - Catherine Mattingley catherine.mattingley@pwc.com
• Pharma - Gavin Orpwood gavin.orpwood@pwc.com
• Public Sector - Adam Timmins adam.timmins@pwc.com
• Retail - Jim Wilkinson jim.wilkinson@pwc.com
• Technology, Media & Telecoms - Mairead Murphy mairead.murphy@pwc.com