Opinion

Paul Alcorn, legal executive at law firm Jones Whyte, discusses the changes to Land & Buildings Transaction Tax and how it impacts buyers. From 15 July 2020 until 31 March 2021 the threshold that the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) begins to be paid for residential property p

Neil Coutts, head of the cyber and technology risk capability for KPMG in Scotland, discusses some of the long-term cybersecurity challenges facing Scottish businesses as more people look to work from home in the future. Scotland’s lockdown may be easing, but there’s a growing accep

Alison Woods, partner and employment law specialist at CMS, discusses the importance of diversity in the workplace as the world emerges from the coronavirus lockdown.  As Scottish business faces one of the toughest-ever economic climates, employers may be questioning whether diversity and inclu

The Higgins Report of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery for the Scottish Government has attracted considerable comment in the media and several alternative views have surfaced from senior business figures. At the same time, Campbell Dallas has been holding round table and one to one discussion

Nimesh Shah, partner at Blick Rothenberg, discusses the implications of tax simplification ahead of chancellor Rishi Sunak's tax 'raid'. The Chancellor has asked the Office of Tax Simplification (‘OTS’) to review the Capital Gains Tax (‘CGT’) rul

Lauren Hazlie, property solicitor at Jones Whyte, details the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the housing market by discussing the extension to the Additional Dwelling Supplement Tax reclaim period. In Scotland, Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) Tax must be paid by a buyer on the purchase o

Andrew Knowles, senior director, restructuring advisory at financial consultancy firm Duff Phelps, details how the temporary suspension of wrongful trading doesn’t change the attention that directors should be giving when evaluating the financial position of their company. The tempor

Roland Smyth, head of Scottish hotels & leisure group at law firm CMS, provides some tips for bars and restaurant owners who are planning to reopen their businesses this week.  The hospitality sector, which has suffered immensely from the coronavirus lockdown, is set to reopen this week. Th

Helen Foord, founder of Edinburgh-based professional services communications agency ELE Global, shares her top five apps/programmes/systems which will help to run businesses virtually. We're actually in the process of reviewing all of our technology at the moment and that would be one of my key

Jackie Fraser, Inverness-based partner at accountants Chiene + Tait, details the reopening of Scotland's tourism sector after the coronavirus lockdown. Tourism is one of Scotland’s most important and fast growing sectors contributing over £11bn to the nation’s annual GDP. Last year

Following the reopening of construction sites in Scotland, Sean McGinness believes the picture should start to become clearer for rural landowners who are in discussions with housebuilders and developers regarding potential new developments and land sales. Many individuals will have spent time durin

Stephen McGowan comments on the latest lockdown updates for the hospitality industry.

Brian McMurray, partner and head of tech at Anderson Anderson & Brown (AAB), details how deals within the tech sector will remain strong in 2020.  2020 has presented monumental challenges to global economies resulting in many people expecting a slowdown in deal volume. In reality, deal

In light of recent updates from the US on new tariffs applied to $3.1billion of European goods, of which Scotch Whisky is included (already with a 25% tariff), Niall Brown, senior portfolio director of Braeburn Whisky comments on how this will impact whisky cask investment and why it could be b

Simon Capaldi, office agency partner at Knight Frank, discusses how the coronavirus pandemic will accelerate changes to office-based working. Social distancing has turned our lives upside down and at short notice businesses adapted to remote working, moving office life into the home.