Amanda took silk in 2015 and is widely regarded as a leading tax and trusts practitioner. She has a thriving advisory practice in both private client and corporate tax and is a regular and enthusiastic litigator, most recently appearing in the Supreme Court in R (on the application of De Silva and another) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2017] UKSC 74; and (with Oliver Marre) in the Mauritian trust tax case Lee & Bunter v HMRC [2017] UKFTT 279; for the wife in the UK’s highest recorded contested divorce case; and for the applicants in a number of judicial review challenges currently being brought against HMRC.
Amanda’s practice falls broadly into two areas. Firstly, she has an increasingly busy litigation practice, having appeared, during her career to date, in the Supreme Court, three times in the House of Lords, eight times in the Court of Appeal, once in the European Court of Justice and twice in the Privy Council as well as a number of appearances before the High Court and First and Upper Tier Tribunal (and the former Special Commissioners), she has recently been involved in litigation in most areas of direct and indirect tax, including trusts (particularly varying very substantial trusts) capital gains tax, charities tax, income tax including the impact of European law on the taxation of foreign dividends, the nature of the source of interest and the tax aspects of divorce (including advising on and appearing in the High Court on the UK and foreign domicile tax aspects of the UK’s “biggest divorce”). She has also recently appeared in the Ugandan Tax Tribunal in a major oil tax dispute and in the First-tier Tribunal on the correct test for the source of interest, also successfully arguing that HMRC were not entitled to refer to unpublished special commissioners decisions. Secondly, Amanda’s practice continues to involve a substantial amount of advice, planning and structuring work particularly for ultra high net worth individuals and their associated corporations and trusts including offshore domicile and residency issues and pension taxation issues. Amanda won Acquisition International’s Most Outstanding Tax Litigator 2017, Best Tax Litigator 2016 and Most Recommended Junior 2015.
She is recognised in Chambers & Partners, Chambers & Partners High Net Worth and the Legal 500 (Private client), which says: “She has a strong presence and an ability to command the room“. She is recommended in Legal 500 (Corporate and Tax) which says she ‘Instills confidence and really listens to her clients.’
