Emma Brown Tax Transactions Partner

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Emma Brown

Tax Transactions Partner

Emma leads our transaction tax team. She joined Wilson Wright in 2014 and became a partner in April 2019.

Emma has a depth of experience of advising entrepreneurs and owner-managed businesses and across a wide range of complex taxation matters relating to both personal and corporate tax. Her expertise includes of corporate reconstructions, M&A, EMI and EIS.

Her attention to detail and her ability to explain complex technical matters in a way that people understand, puts clients at ease. She delivers pragmatic commercial advice and ensures that clients’ best interests are preserved at all times.

Emma sits on the global tax committee of DFK International, reinforcing her strong international links on cross border transactions, and she was a finalist in the 2019 for a prestigious Tolley’s Taxation Award.

Emma is a member of Chartered Institute of Taxation and the EISA.

28 Jul 2022

The current Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advises against all travel to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and recommends UK citizens not to remain in these countries. In accordance with current HMRC advice, individuals returning to the UK from these territories should qualify for any days spent in the UK, to be disregarded due to exceptional circumstances, subject to the 60-day limit. Whether or not this means they were tax resident for the 2021-22 tax year will depend on their individual facts and circumstances.

HMRC guidance clearly sets out, that where an individual returns to the UK because of FCDO advice in response to war, then exceptional circumstances will apply. However, HMRC will also take into consideration any wider reasons which are outside of the individual’s control and look at the facts and circumstances of the situation.

The legislation allows for a maximum of 60 days in each tax year to be disregarded due to exceptional circumstances. This is in addition to the normal time limits set out in the Statutory Residence Test. These limits range from 16 to 183 days of UK presence before becoming tax resident in any tax year.

HMRC state that days spent in the UK will not be considered exceptional where the circumstances are not beyond the individual’s control, or where they could have reasonably been foreseen or predicted.

Life events such as birth, marriage, divorce and death, are not routinely regarded as exceptional circumstances. Choosing to come to the UK for medical treatment, or to receive elective medical services such as dentistry, cosmetic surgery or therapies will not be regarded as exceptional circumstances.

Travel problems, for example a delayed or missed flight due to traffic disruption, train delays or cancellations, or a car breakdown, will not be considered as exceptional circumstances, nor will delays in obtaining visas.

Since HMRC has not announced any special extension to the 60-day period, for those expatriates affected by the conflict, we do not envisage at this stage any change for 2021-22.

Why do we take this position? The Covid-19 pandemic, which affected far more taxpayers, did not lead the government to extend the sixty-day exceptional circumstances period.

For many former expatriates, being brought into the UK tax net, could lead not only to unexpected income tax payments but also capital gains tax bills.  These arise from the rules on temporary non-residence and capital gains tax.

HMRC deems someone as temporarily non-resident in the UK if:

• they have been resident in the UK for at least four tax years (out of the seven tax years prior to departure); and
• they leave the UK and become non-resident; and
• they then return to the UK after a period of non-residence lasting five years or less.

If a taxpayer is treated as temporarily non-resident, then in the year of their return to the UK any gains or losses made in the period of non-residence become chargeable to capital gains tax in the year of return. These rules aim to prevent people from leaving the UK to dispose of an asset just to avoid capital gains tax.

Normally, no tax charge arises if the asset that was sold during the period of temporary non-residence was acquired during that same period. In practice, this means that only disposals of assets held prior to leaving the UK are subject to tax.

Special rules apply to the sales of UK land and buildings which are generally always taxable in the UK irrespective of the owner’s tax residence status. The Wilson Wright tax team is familiar with questions of residency and international taxation as well as the operation of the double taxation agreements between the UK and Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.