Biography
I specialise in wills, trusts, inheritance tax and estate planning. As a solicitor and chartered tax adviser, I bring legal and tax disciplines together, in my development of practice ideas and presentations to referrers and colleagues. I combine working for Irwin Mitchell part time, with freelance training work for STEP, Chartered Insititute of Taxation (CIOT) and TACT, and their branches, local law societies and professional training bodies.
Key Highlights
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Responding to the Autumn 2024 Budget, leading the IM thought leadership response on IHT, presenting to the Private Client Team and leading the firm's Webinar.
- Speaking at the STEP Tax Trust and Estates Conferences in London, Leeds and Bristol in Oct/Nov 2024;
- Speaking at the CIOT Residential Conference at Cambridge Sept 2024 and meeting many practitioners and CIOT leaders;
- Speaking at many STEP branches, in Webinars and live seminars, over the last 3 years, drawing record attendances for some branches;
- Working with HMRC and other representatives of professional bodies to improve the Trust Register (TRS) through the TRS Sub-group.
What do you like about working at Irwin Mitchell?
I like IM encouraging my role as a thought leader, and my gift of communicating tax planning, with my eye for new ideas in response to changes in tax law and practice. I enjoy working with great lawyers and tax & trust practitioners across IM to develop ideas that work, share them and help clients and professional referrers to make sense of what's happening.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your role?
I love training and making complex technical tax and legal points come alive and make sense to others. I find it really rewarding when I help people see solutions and ways of making effective use of the system to achieve their objectives. As a Chartered Tax Advisor, my work is a real mixture of legal and tax planning, i.e. estate planning.
What inspired you to get into law?
To help people understand how the law and tax system can work effectively for them and their families. Life is often complex, with divided families and different needs to address, but we can provide legal solutions which relieve worries and help make the most of the opportunities for tax planning within the system. It’s great when people come to us with a concern which we can help answer with a solution which they understand and with which they are comfortable.
What do you do away from the office?
I love cricket, theatre and music, as well as my family (my wife, 3 adult children and a close wider family). I run a nomadic cricket team, the Harry Baldwin Occassionals (started by actor Michael Simkins and featured in his book “Fatty Batter”) full of lovely characters who play the game in the right spirit. I enjoy going to the theatre (especially musicals), and classical and other music. I am an active member of the United Reformed Church and enjoy singing in the Sussex Gruffs Male Voice Choir and performing on stage in musicals (with Worthing Musical Comedy Society) when time allows! Also, living near the sea in Sussex, I enjoy walking by the sea or on the South Downs.
Publications
Co-edited the Law Society's Inheritance Tax Planning Handbook, published Dec 2020, of which I wrote one third, with 14 IM colleagues; and I am now editing an updated version for 2025. I know many practitioners keep this as their IHT “bible”, on their desks for regular reference, and i am proud of the way we shared our IM approach to IHT.
Also, co-editor of the planned new edition of “Ray and McLaughlin’s Practical Inheritance Tax planning” (Bloomsbury Publishing) with IM colleague Sarah Paton, and Mark McLaughlin, which is part of the Bloomsbury Accounting and Tax Service freely available to ICAEW members.
