Tom Wilde

Corporate / Tax

Tom is a partner in the tax department and heads up the firm’s enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and venture capital trusts (VCT) tax practice, which recently won the "Best SEIS/EIS Tax Adviser" at the EIS Association Awards 2018. Tom is one of the UK’s leading experts in this field and has extensive experience advising a wide range of investors and investee companies on structuring and implementing tax efficient investments, reorganisations and exits in compliance with the EIS and VCT regimes.

In addition, Tom has substantial experience of providing tax advice to companies and individuals on both one-off business transactions and on-going compliance. Tom regularly implements share option schemes including EMI options, employee shareholder shares and company share option plans, as well as negotiating with HMRC on both contentious and non-contentious matters. He is also a member of the Shoosmiths Private Wealth team.

His recent experience includes:

advising a number of EIS and VCT investors including Octopus Investments and Oakfield Capital on the impact on their existing and proposed investments of recent and forthcoming changes to the EIS and VCT regime; acting for Octopus Investments on over 40 EIS and VCT compliant transactions per year, including obtaining advance assurances from HMRC; advising a number of investee companies on how to structure EIS-compliant offers to investors; advising a VCT on how to implement a complex restructure of an existing investment so as to ensure continued compliance with the VCT regime whilst securing the future of the investee company, including negotiating with HMRC; acting for the management team on the sale of a group of companies to a large trade buyer including drafting and negotiating tax warranties and covenant, and providing detailed advice on the effect of the transaction on the client’s company share option plan; setting up a number of EMI option schemes including for a UK-based performance improvement company and an American corporation; and advising an American group on its UK company share option plan and delivering an explanatory training session to its UK-based employees.

Downing College, Cambridge; Nottingham Law School.