SHANE O’DONOVAN

PKF O'Connor, Leddy & Holmes

Tax Partner PKF O’Connor Leddy & Holmes

TAX ISSUES The impact of Covid-19 has given rise to a number of tax issues, which clients have required assistance with this year. These areas range from the global mobility of employees, CAT and retirement planning, and company restructures and sales.

Brexit has caused significant issues for both Irish and UK clients. As the Brexit deal was not finalised until late last December, this impacted clients’ ability to get to grips with the exact agreement in January. Certain clients had been preparing for some time, and were well positioned. For other clients, there were significant issues with their supply chain due to the new customs procedures.

REMOTE ADVICE Operating a tax practice in the current circumstances has brought both challenges and opportunities to our firm. The main challenge has been to maintain client services whilst working remotely, and our investment in our IT systems over the years allowed us to seamlessly transition to remote working. Our firm is currently operating a hybrid working model, and staff have designated in-office days and work-fromhome days.

Tax advice by Zoom or Teams has worked for our clients. However, there are certain aspects of tax advice that work better with a face-to-face meeting. Going forward, it is likely that a hybrid model will be adopted between remote and in-person meetings. This will allow us to be flexible to our clients’ needs.

RETIREMENT PLANNING We would recommend clients to start looking at retirement planning from the age of 45 onwards. A number of conditions relating to Retirement Relief are 10-year conditions, and therefore advance planning is required. Ensuring that shareholdings are correctly held between married couples can have a significant effect on the amount of relief available.

‘Brexit has caused significant issues for both Irish and UK clients’