Tax insights for accountants, advisers and business owners.

Tax law looks black and white. It’s written that way, section by section, rule by rule, intended to give a clear answer to a clear question.

But anyone who’s actually worked in tax knows the reality is messier than that. The interesting questions, and most of the important ones, live in the grey areas. Where the legislation runs out and judgement takes over

That’s the territory we find ourselves in every day. Two tax lawyers, looking at the same cases, rulings and new rules everyone else is looking at, and trying to work out what they actually mean once you take them out of the textbook and put them in front of a real client. So that’s what this is.

A monthly run-through of what’s changed and what’s worth knowing, with our take on the bits that aren’t as settled as they look. Sometimes the answer is clear.

Often it isn’t. Either way, the conversation tends to be the same: a couple of tax lawyers thinking out loud about the stuff that got us interested in tax in the first place. Not a lecture. Not a sales pitch. Just the kind of conversation we’d be having anyway, with anyone willing to listen in.