Skip to content .

Tax

Intangibles tax

We have one of the largest intellectual property practices in the UK.

We advise clients worldwide from a whole range of industries on tax planning ideas and solutions for all types of IP and intangibles, e.g. trade marks, licences, development expenditure, brands, publishing rights and goodwill. Our cutting-edge approach to IP and intangibles means we commonly provide our clients with innovative and bespoke advice.

Our extensive experience shows that most businesses do not exploit their IP and intangibles in a tax efficient manner, or even at all. Generally, this is because IP and intangibles are not afforded the same degree of financial scrutiny and husbandry as tangible assets (by definition, IP and intangibles are less easy to identify than the physical assets of the business, even though in many cases they are far more valuable).

Through our Transfer Pricing Unit, we are one of only a few law firms that are able to provide detailed transfer pricing strategies and advice for IP and intangibles. For example, we have a wealth of information and expertise which enables us to provide advice on the optimum royalty rates an entity may earn for licensing/assigning its intangibles rights to a related party. Uniquely for a law firm, our Transfer Pricing Unit is also able to advise on R&D tax credit and allowance claims for UK corporates.

For further information, please contact Nick Beecham or Nicholas Noble (IP and intangibles tax) or Michael Stirling (IP and intangibles pricing strategies) or Justin Bryant (R&D tax credits and allowances).

Our experience includes:

  • strategies for locating intangibles and IP in tax favourable jurisdictions 
  • exploiting R&D tax credit incentives 
  • transfer pricing policies for high value intangibles
  • optimising the tax treatment when buying or selling an intangible asset based business
  • tax efficient structures for owning, managing and using intangibles

Contacts

Nick Beecham
Nicholas Noble