Execution

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Lawyers work on a huge variety of transactions, but all of them will in some way involve written agreements that will need to be executed by the parties. For this reason, it is very important that lawyers know when a deed is required and fully understand the differences in how deeds and simple contracts are executed.

This subtopic summarises the law, guidance and practice relating to simple contracts and deeds, including in particular:

  1. •

    the key elements that must be present to create a contract

  2. •

    what simple contracts are and how they are executed

  3. •

    what a deed is and the particular transactions for which a deed (rather than a simple contract) is required

  4. •

    the formalities for creating valid deeds

  5. •

    guidance on executing deeds and simple contracts in counterpart, and

  6. •

    how to circulate pre-signed counterpart signature pages and virtual closings

The law and practice relating to the execution of simple contracts and deeds under English law is summarised in Practice Note: Executing documents—deeds and simple contracts , as well as the key differences and the execution formalities for each. For more information, see Practice Notes:

  1. •

    Virtual

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Latest Tax News

Tax weekly highlights—9 October 2025

This week's edition of Tax weekly highlights includes: (1) analysis of the High Court’s decision in Aubrey Weis v HMRC concerning the taxpayer’s claim for legitimate expectation that he would be treated as non-UK domiciled for tax purposes; (2) analysis of the First-tier Tax Tribunal’s (FTT) decision in GW Martin & Co Limited and another v HMRC concerning the treatment of payments to employees to subscribe for shares as part of a tax avoidance scheme; (3) the Scottish Government’s announcement that it intends to hold the Scottish Budget for 2026/27 on 15 January 2026 to reflect the timing of the UK Budget; (4) HMRC’s commentary on its latest corporate tax statistics; and (5) a statement from the Danish tax authority indicating that it will seek to appeal the High Court’s ruling dismissing its claims to recover £1.4bn of Danish dividend tax refunds (see also the case tracker below).

High Court permits taxpayer to bring judicial review claim against HMRC in respect of his historical domicile status (Aubrey Weis v HMRC)

Tax Analysis: In Aubrey Weis v HMRC, the High Court granted the claimant’s application to extend time to bring judicial review proceedings against HMRC and granted permission for the case to proceed to trial. The dispute concerns the taxpayer’s historical domicile status and whether he had a legitimate expectation that HMRC would regard him as non-UK domiciled, such that his foreign income and gains would be taxed on the remittance basis.

FTT holds payments to employees under tax avoidance scheme were taxable earnings despite purported repayment obligation (GW Martin & Co Limited & another v HMRC)

Tax analysis: In GW Martin & Co Ltd & another v HMRC, the First-tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) dismissed the appeals brought by the appellant companies, upholding HMRC’s PAYE income tax determinations and National Insurance contributions (NICs) decisions. The FTT held that payments the appellants made to employees under a marketed tax avoidance scheme were taxable earnings within the meaning of section 62 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 and section 3 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.

Tax weekly highlights—2 October 2025

This week's edition of Tax weekly highlights includes: (1) News Analysis on the FTT’s decision in Isle of Wight NHS Trust concerning the VAT treatment of supplies of locum medical practitioners, (2) HMRC guidance on how agents can report other agents where poor R&D tax relief service standards are suspected, and (3) a new HMRC service for paying high income child benefit charges via PAYE.

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