High Court in Mehjoo: The adviser’s duty to alert a client to a tax savings opportunity

In an unusually thorough judgment the High Court has held that accountants had a duty to advise a client that he may have been a non-dom so that he could then have consulted an appropriate tax specialist to consider what considerable tax avoidance opportunities might be legitimately available to him. In that event the court held that the client may then have saved the CGT on the sale of his business. Silber J so held against the firm of Harben Barker (HB) which faced a claim from former client Hossein Mehjoo (Hossein Mehjoo v Harben Barker (A Firm) & Harben Barker Ltd [2013]).

The judge found that Mr Mehjoo was likely to have been a non-UK domiciliary and his accountants should reasonably have...