Our Fees

Our barristers work on the basis of fixed fees for each stage of a job, agreed in advance and taking into account the following:

Our Clerks will normally need to see the instructions or written details of the matter prior to providing a fixed fee quote which will be based on the criteria listed above and Chambers is not obliged to provide a detailed breakdown of fees. We do not charge on the basis of hourly rates so please do not ask us for such rates.

All work is undertaken only after written terms of work have been agreed upon with the client and the appropriate anti-money laundering checks have been made. Please note that our Clerks cannot provide any legal advice or give you any indication of the outcome of such advice should you choose to instruct.

Our barristers may incur additional expenses in the course of providing their services such as for:

• Travel and subsistence;
• Hotel accommodation;
• Copying and printing;
• Search fees; and
• Court issue and filing fees which can vary from several hundred pounds to many thousands of pounds

The amount of these additional costs will be estimated and agreed in advance with you unless the matter is urgent so as to make it impracticable to seek your agreement in advance.

We do not undertake legal aid or publicly funded legal work.

If you have an insurance policy that provides cover for legal costs you should speak to your insurer or broker direct to confirm what legal costs it covers. Insurance cover is usually capped at a certain amount. Some insurance products do not cover tax related advice and appeal proceedings. We do not accept instructions that rely on payment of fees by an insurer.

Our clients normally pay fees by internet bank transfer but card payments are accepted.

Chambers and our barristers are registered for VAT and registration numbers can be provided to clients on request.

We specialise in taxation related legal advice and representation and the members of Cannon Chambers advise on and appear in civil and criminal tax disputes with HMRC, legal action against professional and other advisers who mis-sell aggressive tax avoidance schemes and advise clients under investigation by HMRC. We regularly advise on the scope of the anti-avoidance rule in section 75A FA 2003 and the General Anti-Abuse Rule or “GAAR”.

We are leading specialists in Stamp Duty Land Tax and related tax issues and we have published works include the annual Tolley’s Stamp Taxes and Key Haven’s GAAR: A Practical Approach (3rd ed April, 2018).

The key stages in any matter will depend on such variables as the nature of the matter, complexity, documentation, court and tribunal directions and the counter-party’s engagement.

As an example, a typical appeal to the First-tier Tax Tribunal (“FTT”) will begin with a notice of appeal to HMRC, proceed to the internal HMRC review stage, then notification of the appeal to the FTT followed by compliance with the FTT’s directions for the conduct of the appeal leading up to a hearing, attendance at the hearing of the appeal and then, in due course, the issue of the decision of the FTT. The time taken from notice of appeal to HMRC to the FTT hearing varies widely depending on matters such as complexity of the issues, arguments deployed, nature and extent of the evidence, HMRC resourcing, FTT judge availability etc but can exceed 12 months. After the appeal hearing has taken place the FTT can take between 4 weeks and a year or more to issue its decision although most FTT decisions are issued within a few months of the appeal hearing.

All our barristers are independent self-employed individuals regulated and authorised to practice by the Bar Standards Board and who supply their services personally and not through an entity. Their practices are clerked by Cannon Chambers which itself is administered by Cannon Chambers Limited.

Our legal services are provided to clients by individual barristers and typically the mix of people involved will consist of a clerk to administer the client on-boarding process and the individual barrister instructed to provide the legal advice and representation. Fees are discussed with and agreed in advance by our clerks who will also agree the scope of the services to be provided by the barrister and will ensure that clients confirm their agreement to our standard terms of work before the barrister is instructed to commence work.

In the first instance please contact one of our clerks preferably by email to outline details of the matter on which you are interested in obtaining legal advice or representation. We will then let you know if the work can be taken on-board depending upon such factors as barrister availability, the nature of the work, complexity and time scale required by the client and if so, quote a fixed fee or a range of possible fixed fees depending upon the nature and extent of the advice and representation you require. Once the scope and extent of the work required has been confirmed then a fixed fee will be agreed with you and once the terms of work have been accepted and our anti-money laundering checks have been completed the barrister will be instructed to commence work.