Edward Waldegrave

Edward has a busy litigation practice which is focused mainly on disputes before the tax tribunals, public law, and professional negligence claims.

A member of the Attorney General’s A Panel of Junior Counsel, Edward regularly acts in factually and legally complex disputes with significant sums at stake, often as sole counsel. He is familiar with litigation in a range of different courts, including the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. He also has considerable experience of cross-examination and of cases involving expert witnesses. Edward enjoys working collaboratively with clients and other professional advisers and adopts a calm and strategic approach to litigation, with first-rate written and oral advocacy underpinned by thorough preparation.

Recent significant tax appeal cases on which Edward has been instructed have concerned the treatment of pharmaceutical intellectual property rights for the purposes of the intangible asset regime, “inward processing relief” from customs duty, share valuation in relation to the gift-aid rules, the VAT grouping provisions, the availability of capital allowances in respect of facilities for the processing and storage of nuclear waste, “enterprise zones”, and the loan relationship rules. Edward was also instructed on the high-profile Ingenious film finance case (which involved issues concerning what constitutes “trading”, the “view to profit” test, and generally accepted accounting practice).

Edward is also experienced in judicial review work, having acted for government and private-sector clients in relation to tax-related claims involving legitimate expectation and ultra vires arguments. Professional negligence claims also constitute an important part of his practice; Edward has extensive experience of acting for both defendants and claimants in relation to such claims (particularly those arising from allegedly defective tax advice).

In terms of advisory work, Edward regularly advises clients on matters such as inheritance tax, capital gains tax, the “transfer of assets abroad” rules, and VAT.