Opinion

A severe shortage of working capital is set to cause a growing number of business failures as companies responding to the recovery become overstretched and insolvent due to a lack of cash, James Fennessey, restructuring partner with Azets in Scotland, has warned. Working capital is the liquidity ava

Kieran Smith, an associate at Thompsons Solicitors, reveals why group action against Link Fund Solutions, in their role as manager of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF), is the only way to see justice done. The Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) was the flagship fund of the larger Woodford Fund

Neil Bradbrook, managing director of Falkirk-based Ahead Business Consulting, highlights the new opportunities made available to Scottish businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scotland has just 6% of the UK’s business base, spread out across a third of the land area.

Stuart MacPherson, business services manager at Meston Reid & Co, considers the tax challenges for hospitality businesses emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK’s hospitality sector has been harder hit than most by the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequent restrictions.

Ian McMonagle, a Chartered Tax Adviser who sits on the Scottish Committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, and taxation director at Russell & Russell, business advisers, details the intricacies of the tax system and why most conversations start with ‘it depends’. Whenever anyo

Thomas Moore, senior investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI), shares his views on why UK equities are back in favour. It’s now a little over five years since the Brexit referendum and over that period UK equities have found themselves decidedly unloved on account of a n

Alan Meek, partner and head of Morton Fraser's restructuring and insolvency team, discusses the intricacies of limited liability. In this two-part article, we highlight for directors some of the main ways in which the general protection of limited liability does not apply or can be lost.

Michael Reid, managing partner at Aberdeen chartered accountancy firm Meston Reid & Co, highlights the need to communicate with HMRC.  There’s been a great deal of talk in recent months around the various options open to any business looking to deal with creditor pressure now that tra

Douglas Roberts, partner at law firm Lindsays, discusses the economic benefits of employee-ownership in Scotland. By 2030, the Scottish Government hopes the country will be home to 500 employee-owned companies. It’s an ambitious target which requires sustained focus, but I’m in no doubt

Cat MacLean, partner and head of dispute resolution at MBM Commercial, explores the judgment issued yesterday morning in Sekers v Clydesdale [2021] CSOH 89. Online fraud has been on the rise for many years. The advent of lockdown and working from home has seen the volume of attacks increase by one t

Alan Meek, partner and head of Morton Fraser's restructuring and insolvency team, discusses the intricacies of limited liability. Limited liability is one of the fundamental concepts in our understanding of company law.

David Alexander, managing director of property firm DJ Alexander, discusses the potential setbacks of introducing rent-controlled areas in Scotland. When an economy is laid low by war, famine, pestilence or – most recently – by a global pandemic, one factor is crucial to eventual recover

James Irving-Lewis of Phil Anderson Financial Services in Aberdeen discusses the COVID-19 insurance myth. With more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide and fears that 80% of the UK population will fall ill as a result, many people are looking to their insurance provi

Yvonne Evans, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Dundee, author of the Trusts, Trustees and Judicial Factors reissue of the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia and member of the Law Society of Scotland's Trusts and Succession Committee, reflects on the importance of trusts to the Scottish economy,

The post-covid economic recovery in the UK is being channelled towards regional cities, according to Martha Peyton, managing director and head of global applied research at Aegon Asset Management. The long-term structural trends of demographic change and Brexit are having a transformational effect o