James Boustead

James Boustead is primarily based in our Chelmsford office, but is responsible for leading delivery of our business tax advisory services across the firm.

James first trained as an accountant in our Accounts and Audit Team in 2008, before deciding to specialise in tax in 2012. He then completed his Chartered Tax qualification shortly thereafter.

Over the past decade, James has spent the vast majority of his time focusing on tax planning work and advising owner-managed businesses from a range of sectors, across a wide variety of tax issues.

With a diverse knowledge in taxation, finance and business, James has become a trusted adviser to many of our largest clients, and supports a number of our relationship leads in developing the advisory aspects that we offer as part of that holistic service.

James prides himself on reserving the right to ask as many questions as it takes to develop the best understanding of a scenario, before considering matters from a tax and non-tax perspective, as part of ensuring clients get the best advice in areas including:

• Corporate Tax
• Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT)
• Inheritance Tax (IHT) including Business Property Relief (BPR) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR)
• Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
• Employment tax
• Residency status and interpreting double tax treaties
• Single joint expert (SJE) witness report work
• Partnership tax

Over recent years, James has overseen tremendous development within our Business Tax Advisory Team, where he and his colleagues regularly consult on a wide range of topics, but in particular have been helping with a large number of the following scenarios:

• Succession planning
• Group reorganisations including demergers
• Shareholder exit planning including management buy outs (MBO) and employee ownership trusts (EOT)
• Design and implementation of employee share incentive plans including enterprise management incentive (EMI) schemes and growth shares.

In addition to this, James has developed deep expertise in advising our agricultural clients on tax issues specific to that sector, including the Inheritance Tax reliefs – Business Property Relief (BPR) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR) – which can be so significant to landowners. With Essex having undergone substantial house building activity in recent years, advising landowners also regularly involves consideration of option agreements, promotion agreements and third party land sales.

James has substantial involvement in helping his clients to gain new clients, particularly through his relationships and reputation within other firms of professionals that Rickard Luckin work most closely with.

Outside of work, James lives in Billericay with his wife and two young sons. Other than spending time with his family, James spends his free time following a wide range of sporting interests.