Tax rules

Time to send the family wealth on a foreign holiday?

Taking your family wealth on a foreign holiday always sounds more glamorous than staying at home and doing a bit of housekeeping. Private Wealth partner, Helena Luckhurst encourages you to think about your assets.

IHT relief and holiday homes: has the tide turned?

Confidence in claiming Inheritance Tax (IHT) Business Property Relief (BPR) in relation to holiday homes has been at a low ebb in recent years, following a string of cases that have ultimately gone against the taxpayer.  However, in the recent case of Graham v HMRC ([2018] UKFTT 0306 (TC)), the taxpayer was victorious.  Has this […]

Domicile dramas

Many advisers have to grapple with the sometimes difficult question of establishing their client’s domicile. A client’s domicile is fundamentally important in a diverse range of English legal and tax areas, such as whether: a client can bring divorce proceedings in the UK; a client is liable to UK Inheritance Tax on worldwide assets as […]

The best Christmas present for your family: a discretionary trust?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas out there, as Bing says.  Thoughts turn to what gifts to give our family.  When it comes to making big gifts to family members, though, in lifetime or on death, still not enough people think of using a trust. Many people hardly know what a trust is; […]

Finance Bill 2017: Non-dom tax changes dropped – for now?

The Finance Bill 2017 contained a number of measures altering the way in which long term UK resident non-doms and UK residential property held in certain offshore entities would be taxed in the UK. However, last week it became clear that all of the non-dom tax changes would be dropped from the Finance Bill, to […]

UK residential property in offshore structures: more surprises from the Government

The Government has confirmed its intention to make UK residential property held indirectly by non-doms through an offshore structure chargeable to UK Inheritance Tax (IHT). As planned, this will begin on 6 April 2017. Although the proposal was first announced as far back as July 2015, draft legislation effecting this change was only published on […]

Get ready for another ATED valuation date

The Autumn Statement on 23 November contained no further detail about how the Government’s proposals for achieving Inheritance Tax transparency for offshore structures from 6 April 2017 is going to work in practice. However, in rather ominous fashion, the Government did use the occasion to confirm that the changes are going ahead as planned from […]

Long term UK resident non-doms set to lose remittance basis of taxation

Anyone who does not regard England as their permanent home (non-dom) but who has been resident in the UK for at least 15 out of the past 20 income tax years will wake up to a very different UK tax regime on 6 April 2017, according to a further consultation issued by the Government on […]

Brexit exits – don’t get caught out by the IHT deemed domiciled rules

Brexit uncertainties may be giving fresh impetus to many UK resident non-UK domiciliaries who are thinking about their residency plans. However, for res non-doms, it’s important not to lose sight of another key tax change now on the horizon – the change in the Inheritance Tax (IHT) deemed domiciled rules. A person is deemed domiciled […]

Second marriage spouses and Wills: three key bear traps to avoid

Second marriage spouses sometimes have Wills that do not leave their assets to their second spouse outright. This is particularly the case when there are children from the first marriage and the intention is to ensure that everyone – the second wife and the children from the first marriage – receive something. For some clients, […]