One minute with... Jessica Ganagasegaran

What’s keeping you busy at work?

I am fortunate that my practice is varied as I work on a mix of advisory as well as transactional workstreams, so I am never bored! Recently, I’ve been working with a number of clients readying their structures for sale. This week, for example, I’ve been working on reorganising a real estate fund structure in preparation of a sale of the underlying assets. I have also been working on a number of vendor tax due diligence reports.

I also co-chair Greenberg Traurig London’s CSR and pro bono initiatives, a role which I love and which also keeps me busy. We’re currently in the process of nominating our next charity of the year and planning our upcoming fundraising events.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?

The importance of advocating for yourself and speaking up. As a trainee, I was quite shy and afraid to speak up and say what I was interested in (tax!). I remember my old supervisor saying to me that she didn’t know that I wanted to qualify into tax. So, I always tell our trainee solicitors, if you’re interested in something, let people know! And, also, that it is ok to ask questions. In fact, it is really important to do so.

If you could make one change to a tax law or practice what would it be?

With the introduction of the qualifying asset holding company regime, the UK government is seeking to promote the UK’s attractiveness as an ‘asset management hub’ and a place to invest through. But to give businesses and investors certainty you need a responsive and well-resourced tax authority. I think the teams at HMRC work very hard, but they are under-resourced and there is a huge backlog as a result of Covid-19. Basic administrative tasks such as registering entities for VAT or under the non-resident landlords scheme can take months (in one matter we’ve been working on, it’s taken a year) and this creates uncertainty.

Are there any new rules that are causing a particular problem?

There have been a number of recent changes to the UK tax treatment of non-UK tax resident investors investing in UK real estate, with the introduction of non-resident capital gains tax in April 2019 and then, in April 2020, moving non-UK tax resident companies investing in UK real estate into the UK corporation tax regime (from the UK income tax regime). These changes represented a dramatic change to the way non-UK tax resident investors investing in UK real estate are taxed. The rules are still relatively new and so the market is still finding its feet in terms of how the rules apply in practice.

What should we look out for later this year?

The consultation on sovereign immunity launched by the UK government in July of this year.

The principle of sovereign immunity, which is a longstanding tenet of international law, provides that one sovereign state should not seek to impose its law on another sovereign state. Consequently, persons benefitting from sovereign immunity, such as sovereign wealth funds, are currently not subject to UK tax on their UK income and gains.

As part of the consultation, the UK government has announced that it is considering changes to the tax treatment of persons benefiting from sovereign immunity, the effect of which would mean that from April 2024 sovereign wealth funds would no longer be exempt from UK tax on income and gains (other than interest and dividend income).

This would represent a seismic change, particularly for the UK real estate sector, as the change would mean that the returns of sovereign wealth funds (who represent a major category of investor) from investing in UK real estate would be significantly impacted by UK tax on income and gains. Whilst only at consultation stage, we are already seeing the effects in the market as parties seek to allocate change of law risk on investments.

You might not know this about me but...

I love cooking and I’m happiest when in the kitchen. I like to think that I’m Nigella Lawson, but I’m probably more like the Swedish chef from The Muppets.