Trusts

Trustees beware – beneficiaries can ask for more trust information than you think!

Lewis v Tamplin ([2018] EWHC 777 (Ch)) is a useful reminder to trustees and their advisers of the difficulty of resisting requests for disclosure of trust documents from trust beneficiaries, where the purpose of the request is to obtain information about the trust, its assets and the trustees’ stewardship of them, to enable the beneficiaries […]

Capital Gains Tax and offshore trusts: match fit for April 2018?

The UK’s Autumn Budget contained a welcome lack of new measures affecting the capital gains taxation of offshore (i.e. non-UK) trusts.  However, there are Capital Gains Tax changes waiting in the wings, already announced, coming into effect on 6 April 2018.  There may be steps that UK resident non-doms and their trustees ought to be […]

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; […]

Trustee beneficial ownership reporting obligations: technical guidance issued

Trustees of most UK and foreign trusts which are liable to pay UK Income Tax (IT), Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or Inheritance Tax (IHT), among others, in any given UK tax year, must now report beneficial ownership details to HMRC in relation to that tax year. This is part of the UK’s response to the […]

Non-dom tax changes – IHT periodic charges and offshore trusts

Well advised non-doms know that UK situated assets should never be directly held by their offshore discretionary trusts. To do so would subject the offshore trust to periodic charges to UK Inheritance Tax (IHT). These charges comprise the entry charge, the ten year anniversary charge, and exit charges, where value leaves the trust after creation. […]

Guest blog: Contributed to a property purchase? Here’s how to protect your investment

Buying a property is often the biggest investment a person will make in their lifetime. It therefore stands to reason that people want to ensure that their investment is protected. The recent case of Haque v Raja[1] provides a reminder that, if you don’t appear on the title of a registered property that you’ve contributed […]

Trusts and the revised 4AMLD

In my 26 November 2015 blog, I wrote about the impact on trusts of the EU’s first draft of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD). It seemed that only if the trust generated ‘tax consequences’ would the trustees have to provide details about the trust to a central register, which would not be publicly available. […]

Trustees and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS)

As if FATCA wasn’t enough, UK trustees will have to get to grips with two new reporting regimes next year – the CRS and the European Directive on Administrative Cooperation, or DAC. The DAC is how the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) will be implemented by the EU and will affect EU Member States. There […]

Trustees and the PSC Register

From 6 April 2016, virtually all UK incorporated companies (and LLPs, but in this blog I’ll refer to companies only) will have to maintain a register of individuals or entities who control them. As a result, individuals who either own, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of the shares or voting rights of such companies, […]

New dividend taxation rules: what trustees should be doing

The taxation of dividends is set to change in the new UK tax year beginning 6 April 2016. The 10% dividend tax credit will go, replaced by a new £5,000 dividend allowance that permits the first £5,000 of an individual’s dividend income to be taxed at 0%. Dividends will still sit as the top slice […]