Graham Funnell

Specialises in successfully defending against HM Revenue investigations for nearly 20 years including Capital allowances, Capital Gains Tax, Employee benefits, Employer compliance investigations, General income tax issues, Investigations, Overseas entity taxation, Partnership tax matters, Private clients, Property tax, Residence and non-residence issues, Revenue enquiries, Self assessment tax returns, and Tax clinics, and I have been writing professionally about the subject since 1995. In that time I have encountered virtually every type of business which practitioners are likely to have difficulty with in an investigation scenario. Getting quickly to the likely aspects of contention helps reduce the time spent by all concerned on a particular case, and gives the client reassurance that everything is being dealt with efficiently. This is especially true now that risk-assessment is being used increasingly by HMRC.

I commenced my tax career with a small regional Chartered practice in Hove, Sussex, in 1977. Moving on to increasingly more senior positions I quickly gained a thorough all-round grounding in taxation issues and began to assist with defending tax investigations on behalf of a very diverse client-base.

Since founding my own general tax practice in 1988 I have continued to be closely involved with most complex taxation issues, since my client-base is quite diverse and technically demanding. Although a one-office practice with only six staff, 'compliance' clients automatically receive the very best tax-planning advice as part of a top-level all-round service.  

Since 1995 I have also been a freelance tax writer, having produced articles for several of the leading professional magazines. At the same time, I began a very close involvement with what was originally Butterworths Tax Investigations service. This role continues, although the title has since passed to Lexis Nexis, Tottel Publishing and now Bloomsbury Professional.

Having now dealt with defending HMRC investigations into nearly every conceivable trade and profession, I now wish to offer my unique services to taxpayers and practitioners who are not comfortable about adversarial scenarios invloving HMRC. Depending upon clients' preference, I can either deal with HMRC directly or correspond 'behind the scenes' via the practictioner. Knowing HMRC's tactics, powers, objectives and priorities intimately, I can often see which way things will go well in advance, thus enabling us to achieve the optimum result for the client, whether proving complete innocence or damage-limitation.  

I am able to resolve even extremely difficult or seemingly intractible the cases, always achieving the best possible result for the clients. Providing value-for-money is extremely important for me, whether or not the client carries professional expenses insurance. I am also conscious of the immense personal strain that clients investigated by HMRC experience, which I always seek to mitigate by offering a 'buffer' between themselves and HMRC.