James Hartley-Crawford is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) specialising in residential property taxation, SDLT planning, and CGT mitigation strategies. He qualified as a solicitor at Withers LLP before obtaining his CTA designation and holds an LLM in Tax Law from King's College London. With 16 years advising on property tax matters, he now leads the private client property tax division at a leading London firm, focusing on transactions above £1 million.
James Hartley-Crawford brings rigorous legal training and deep tax expertise to the complex world of UK property taxation, helping clients navigate one of Britain's most intricate fiscal landscapes. He read Law at the University of Oxford before completing his Legal Practice Course at BPP and training contract at Withers LLP, one of the world's leading private client law firms. Recognising that property transactions increasingly required specialist tax knowledge, James pursued his CTA qualification and subsequently completed an LLM in Tax Law at King's College London, focusing his dissertation on the interaction between SDLT and corporate structures. His career has spanned senior roles at Mishcon de Reya and Charles Russell Speechlys, where he advised on property tax planning for transactions collectively exceeding £3 billion. James possesses exceptional technical depth in stamp duty land tax reliefs and traps, capital gains tax principal private residence claims, and inheritance tax planning for property portfolios. He is particularly skilled at identifying legitimate tax savings through structure selection, timing optimisation, and the strategic use of spousal transfers and corporate ownership. His writing stems from frustration at seeing clients pay unnecessary tax due to poor timing or structural decisions, often discovered only after completion when remediation is impossible. James addresses property investors, landlords, and high-net-worth buyers seeking to understand their tax position before making irreversible commitments, always grounded in current HMRC guidance and recent tribunal decisions.