A new requirement for valuers
April 15, 2025
Providing valuations for tax situations is going to become tax advice
Quite a short blog this week, but with profound ramifications for the valuations industry.
Soon, date to be agreed, valuers, where they are providing a report upon which someone is relying for tax advice, will have to be properly qualified. They will have to become Chartered Tax Advisers.
We like this. It’s a great excuse to give our team some more training! So we will be putting all our valuers (I fear even me!) through the CTA Qualification – Direct Route.
I am told by IFAs and wealth advisers that we should be able to pass without too much difficulty.
For you, as lawyers, its worth noting:
- If you provide in-house valuations for schemes like EMI, growth shares and other share incentive plans, you should speak to your colleagues to find out whether you should change your policies and procedures to reflect the change in regulations
- Remember, there may be inferred or explicit tax advice when groups are being restructured, so watch out for the issue arising in these circumstances
- Beware who undertakes responsibility for setting the valuation for fundraises and M&A as the issue may pop up there, too and finally
- Divorce is another one… I suspect if valuations of assets are preordained in a prenup. or even a post-nup, all sorts of problems could emerge, should the courts subsequently get involved.
The valuations market is getting much more professional but for me this is a very positive development. It will ensure another layer of quality is applied to a valuation exercise. And it matters. All Athla wants to do is to get valuations right.
