Macfarlanes LLP

Tax and Reward

James advises on a wide range of tax matters, including the establishment of private equity, credit, real estate and other investment funds and their deal and investment structuring, the structuring of management incentive plans and partnership tax.

James has advised a wide client base on a substantial range of tax matters. He specialises in investment fund tax, and has worked on fundraisings for our key investment funds clients and on a stand-alone basis across the range of asset classes and fund terms (through private equity, property and hedge funds, as well as family office investment structures). He has been involved in examining the structures of a number of fund managers in response to the many changes to personal and corporate taxation (including carried interest changes) which have affected the industry over recent years.

He is a specialist in partnership tax across asset management and other professional services firms.

James also advises funds and others in the financial services sphere on their acquisitions and disposals of investments (both private equity and property based) and the structure of investment platforms and establishment and disposal of asset managers themselves. He advises on the tax treatment of secondary transactions in fund investments (including a number of recent stapled secondary transactions and GP lead processes) as well as asset manager stake sales.

James is co-chair of the firm’s Pride network.

Qualified 2007; partner 2014