One minute with Emily Au, a rising star in tax at Quinn Emanuel.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Forensic investigations spanning decades for individuals and trusts, resolving cross-border enquiries for hundreds of corporate entities, amongst various direct and indirect tax litigation. More practically, I spend time navigating unprecedented delays across the UK court system, which contrast starkly to other cases I work on in the US, UAE and Asia, some of which review, give directions for, and determine contentious applications in a matter of days.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I can’t profess to have any original insight into career advice, but I will summarise some invaluable advice that I have received from my sailing coach when I used to compete in sailing regattas, who would tell me to ‘control the controllables’, usually by reference to the elements of wind and tide. The impact of those words for non-maritime aspects of my life has only been brought into focus relatively recently.
I am fortunate to work with varied clients, cases, opponents and courts on a daily basis, so unpredictable situations and requests are inevitable. As a junior, it can be easy to get very stressed, very quickly, in those situations and start worrying about issues you can’t control (or that are even highly unlikely). I have learnt that unpredictability is inherent in this career, no matter how experienced you are. I now focus on the elements of my work, working day, and career that are within my control, which certainly feels easier than worrying about precisely when the next global black swan event might hit.
What’s topical in your world?
Whilst tax disputes often revolve around the precise interpretation and application of specific rules at a defined point in time, they are not immune from the daily cut-and-thrust of politics. The recent heat of political battles over tax policy, as evidenced by the numerous headlines over VAT on private school fees and farmers’ protests in Westminster over agricultural property relief changes. The uncertainty arising from those debates has given rise to greater appetite from taxpayers for tax certainty in as short a period of time as possible, regardless of the merits of their case. We observe that through increased volumes of mediation, pressure to bring enquiries to an end and progress to formal litigation and taxpayers making payments on account to safeguard against high interest rates.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
The intermediaries legislation, or IR35, has long needed a statutory test for employment status for tax purposes, as suggested by the Taylor review in 2017. The legislation treats, in some circumstances, a person whose services are provided through a personal service company as an employee for income tax and national insurance purposes, drawing from both employment and tax case law to determine who should be caught. However, those cases usually have different priorities: employment law focuses on whether an employment relationship and two years’ service exist for employment rights, while tax law looks only at the tax status for payments to the individual delivering services, which often means the case law is not easily applied between the branches of law – a distinction recently highlighted by the Supreme Court in HMRC v Professional Game Match Officials Ltd [2024] UKSC 29. A statutory test, targeted at employment status for tax, and designed to reflect modern-day working practices, would cut through the confusion for all.
You might not know this about me but...
I have been a lifelong member of the Scouts, both as a young person and a volunteer (now mostly in governance roles). I still crave long walks in remote regions and nights under the stars...
One minute with Emily Au, a rising star in tax at Quinn Emanuel.
What’s keeping you busy at work?
Forensic investigations spanning decades for individuals and trusts, resolving cross-border enquiries for hundreds of corporate entities, amongst various direct and indirect tax litigation. More practically, I spend time navigating unprecedented delays across the UK court system, which contrast starkly to other cases I work on in the US, UAE and Asia, some of which review, give directions for, and determine contentious applications in a matter of days.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?
I can’t profess to have any original insight into career advice, but I will summarise some invaluable advice that I have received from my sailing coach when I used to compete in sailing regattas, who would tell me to ‘control the controllables’, usually by reference to the elements of wind and tide. The impact of those words for non-maritime aspects of my life has only been brought into focus relatively recently.
I am fortunate to work with varied clients, cases, opponents and courts on a daily basis, so unpredictable situations and requests are inevitable. As a junior, it can be easy to get very stressed, very quickly, in those situations and start worrying about issues you can’t control (or that are even highly unlikely). I have learnt that unpredictability is inherent in this career, no matter how experienced you are. I now focus on the elements of my work, working day, and career that are within my control, which certainly feels easier than worrying about precisely when the next global black swan event might hit.
What’s topical in your world?
Whilst tax disputes often revolve around the precise interpretation and application of specific rules at a defined point in time, they are not immune from the daily cut-and-thrust of politics. The recent heat of political battles over tax policy, as evidenced by the numerous headlines over VAT on private school fees and farmers’ protests in Westminster over agricultural property relief changes. The uncertainty arising from those debates has given rise to greater appetite from taxpayers for tax certainty in as short a period of time as possible, regardless of the merits of their case. We observe that through increased volumes of mediation, pressure to bring enquiries to an end and progress to formal litigation and taxpayers making payments on account to safeguard against high interest rates.
If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?
The intermediaries legislation, or IR35, has long needed a statutory test for employment status for tax purposes, as suggested by the Taylor review in 2017. The legislation treats, in some circumstances, a person whose services are provided through a personal service company as an employee for income tax and national insurance purposes, drawing from both employment and tax case law to determine who should be caught. However, those cases usually have different priorities: employment law focuses on whether an employment relationship and two years’ service exist for employment rights, while tax law looks only at the tax status for payments to the individual delivering services, which often means the case law is not easily applied between the branches of law – a distinction recently highlighted by the Supreme Court in HMRC v Professional Game Match Officials Ltd [2024] UKSC 29. A statutory test, targeted at employment status for tax, and designed to reflect modern-day working practices, would cut through the confusion for all.
You might not know this about me but...
I have been a lifelong member of the Scouts, both as a young person and a volunteer (now mostly in governance roles). I still crave long walks in remote regions and nights under the stars...
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