Practice guide: Points to watch on M&A tax deeds

Tax deeds. They are the must-have accessory to any UK domestic private M&A deal. Every firm has its own precedent saying the same things in slightly different ways but the key point of them all is quite simple and can be condensed into two short sentences: ‘Seller if there’s any unexpected tax in this target that I as buyer don’t find out about until after I’ve bought it I’m expecting compensation’; and ‘Buyer you can’t control the compliance process to cause problems that weren’t already there.’

Simple enough but as with all things tax related the devil...