This week we are delighted to have Dr. Dominic de Cogan present his work to our group. As most of you may know, Dominic conceived of and co-founded the Cambridge Tax Discussion Group in October 2015 which eventually formed in to a PhD-student led group. We have been running since then with Dominic’s support and have used the forum to provide thoughtful, cutting-edge and engaging discussions on tax related topics at a very high level; and made accessible to all throughout the University and beyond. Please join us this week in what will be an engaging look at tax from a constitutional and public law perspective.

Summary of talk: Dr Dominic de Cogan, from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge, will give a presentation on “Tax, The Constitution and Public Law”.    Author of Tax Law, State Building and the Constitution, Dominic will be expanding on his 2020 monograph, to address some topical aspects of the discourse on the relationship between tax and the State. From domestic issues, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, to international concerns, such as the taxation of multi-national corporations, Dominic will be challenging our established perspectives. Dominic will also be explaining his current work about the relationship between tax and public law.

See “Meetings” tab for more information. We hope you will join us Thursday February 18th from 17:00-18:00 (GMT). The meeting will be held ONLINE. E-mail May Hen-Smith  hmh46@cam.ac.uk or Guy Mulley gevm2@cam.ac.uk for link

This week on the Cambridge Tax Group we have a presentation by Robert Hartley. We will begin at our normal time of 17: 00 on Thursday February 4th. We hope you will join us.

Please contact Guy Mulley (gevm2@cam.ac.uk) or May Hen-Smith (hmh46@cam.ac.uk) for access to the meeting link.

Title: A Career In Tax Disputes?

Robert Hartley takes a practical look at tax disputes in the UK over the last twenty years and how tax disputes progress from initial enquiries to resolution. The talk will touch on matters such as developments in the way HMRC approach tax avoidance, evidential issues such as privilege, and the human cost of unresolved tax disputes. This talk is ideal for anyone looking to gain some insight into what a career in tax looks like, or who is considering a career specialising in contentious matters more generally.

Robert Hartley is a partner and solicitor-advocate in the tax disputes team at the (hopefully) well-known firm of Mishcon de Reya LLP. Having graduated from Magdalene College in 1993, he joined the post-graduate Cambridge LLM course the same year. He then worked for a time as a junior barrister before beginning a tax career in 1999 at what is now Hogan Lovells LLP. Alongside his work on a number of high-profile contentious and non-contentious tax matters over the years, he spent a number of years teaching VAT at King’s College London, and specializes in “big ticket” direct and indirect tax disputes. He is not an accountant, but he will work with spreadsheets if he really has to.