‘This was not a good idea and we’re entitled to say so’ – LLP tax proposals get short shrift

After alarm bells were raised last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is now reportedly U-turning on plans to apply employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) to limited liability partnerships (LLPs) at the next budget. The news has come as a relief for many LLPs across the country, and follows concerted lobbying efforts by representative bodies such as the City of London Law Society (CLLS), which wrote to both Reeves and Lord Chancellor David Lammy calling for a reversal of the plans.

CLLS chair and former Simmons & Simmons senior partner Colin Passmore (pictured) had been hopeful that the government would listen to the concerns raised by the industry, and said that he was ‘very, very pleased’ by the news. The CLLS’s lobbying efforts centred around concerns over the ongoing health of the British legal industry, which Passmore described as ‘an enormous success story. ‘It’s not often fully appreciated how many jobs we provide across the country,’ Passmore said.

Despite raising the issue with the government directly, the CLLS has had no direct response from the Government as of yet. ‘I hope one day we get a conversation,’ Passmore said, ‘but at the end of the day, with respect to the government, this was not a good idea and we are absolutely entitled to say so.’