Transaction Tax services

Tax is a key aspect of any transaction. The form of financing used, equity incentives and how to integrate businesses and potentially address due diligence findings are all areas where there can be significant tax matters to consider and/or resolve.

We invest in understanding your business and your objectives. This allows us to advise on a practical and commercial approach to tax as part of your transaction. We also draw on our knowledge of the tax and regulatory environment and your industry to help you achieve your goals.

We advise a diverse range of clients on both buy and sell side transactions. Our clients include mid-market private equity houses, their portfolio companies, entrepreneurially-spirited businesses of all sizes and large corporates groups.

Our team

The Transaction Tax team operates from offices across the UK. The team is led by five London-based partners with an extensive team of transaction tax specialists which includes dedicated colleagues in the VAT, employment taxes and share schemes teams . We work closely with our corporate finance practice to provide an integrated advisory service throughout your transaction.

We are a key part of the BDO International network with a presence in over 160 countries. We can support clients with due diligence, structuring and other transaction tax services through a single point of contact covering multiple jurisdictions.

Our services

Our advice and services are tailored to your needs and the requirements of your unique transaction. You will receive bespoke reports that are prepared by due diligence and tax structuring experts with input from other tax specialists as required to provide you with the best advice. The reports deliver the ideas and actionable insights that will help you complete a successful deal.

We are focused on delivering commercial, value for money advice. We typically find it useful to structure our work in a staged manner, with upfront, high-level advice before preparing a more detailed ’steps’ paper suitable for implementation.

We provide services in the three following areas;

• Tax structuring 
• Buy side services and tax due diligence
• Sell side services and vendor tax due diligence

Tax structuring

When structuring acquisitions, it is vital to consider the position of all stakeholders and think beyond the tax profile of the target and the entity acquiring it. We have extensive experience of advising private equity houses, the acquisition/portfolio company as well as larger corporate groups. You can rely on us to be aware of the wider impact of transaction structuring and income flows on your transaction.

Our approach is to discuss the structuring requirements with you in order to co-develop an appropriate scope and approach for each investment. Where appropriate we will use information gathered during the due diligence process to provide transaction structuring advice efficiently.

Buy side services and tax due diligence

We help clients assess the tax risk profile of their potential acquisition and the steps needed to address any issues. Our depth and breadth of experience means we can give you the tax advice, analysis and recommendations that matter.

We assess the high-level position of your target business before agreeing with you the preferred approach to tax due diligence. We take into account the complexity of the target, historical issues and any international operations. We are aware that the increasing prevalence of W&I insurance can mean that you need a specific level of due diligence and we are committed to meeting that need. 

We are already a multi-disciplinary team and we work closely with experts in data analytics, financial modelling, financial, IT, operational and commercial due diligence, SPA and completion mechanism support and valuations. Our goal is to provide you will all the advice and support you need to succeed.

Sell side services and vendor tax due diligence

When you are selling part or all of your business, tax issues can cause value to leak and even hold up the transaction completely. To avoid this, you need robust tax controls in place, no open compliance issues and support for tax positions you have taken on tax valuations for shares issued, transfer pricing studies and VAT, for example.

You will benefit from our deep and broad vendor due diligence experience. We work closely with colleagues with industry expertise so that we can tailor our advice to your sector and markets. 

Our robust, independent review of your business delivers the information you need to support your sales process. It will identify potential obstacles to a smooth sale or any issues that could reduce value. We will help you address those obstacles and issues, bringing in other expertise where that will make a difference.