Sharon Khin assesses the impact
of the Supreme Court decision to refuse accountants Legal Professional
Privilege
The Supreme Court has given its judgment on extending Legal
Professional Privilege (LPP) to chartered accountants ruling that
it should not be extended to clients of non-legally qualified tax
advisers but that the matter should be looked at by Parliament.
The long awaited judgement has garnered much interest from parties
with vested interests, including the Law Society, the Bar Council,
the Legal Services Board, the ICAEW, and HMRC.
The significance of this appeal rested on the fact that if it
was allowed, it could protect from disclosure tax law advice given
by accountants and further blur the line between tax lawyers and accountants.