Why Your Tax Team Should Be in the Room Before the Deal Is Done

The best in-house tax teams in private capital are not waiting to be consulted. They are in the room before a deal is structured, translating complex legislation into decisions investment teams can actually act on. Ed Hammond of Coller Capital makes the case that the shift from compliance function to trusted business advisor is not just cultural. It requires tax professionals to understand the commercial logic of a transaction well enough to know when some tax leakage is simply the cost of doing good business.In conversation with Laura Underhill of Clifford Chance, the discussion covers the growing complexity of fund structures, why data management has become the top operational priority for tax teams in secondary funds, and how post-pandemic professional mobility is creating unexpected carried interest and permanent establishment risks that need active monitoring.