Successes for Speechly Bircham
Speechlys' Private Client Services has enjoyed some public successes in the past few months. We were recognised as Private Client Law Firm of the Year at the Spear's Wealth Management Survey Awards (for the full story, go to our website). The judges commented that we were "head and shoulders above the competition" due to our "joined up approach" to services for private clients. Nowhere better was this approach illustrated than in our recent innovative seminar presented jointly with our Privacy and Reputation team colleagues sponsored by Spear's Wealth Management Survey on protecting wealth, reputation and image rights of high profile and wealthy individuals (for the full story, go to Spear's website). And finally, we are pleased to have three of our partners Richard Hogwood, Sanjvee Shah and Mark Summers included in Private Client Practitioner's 35 under 35 as rising stars of private client professional services.
Disclosure of offshore assets
The New Disclosure Opportunity will close on 30 November 2009. In addition, the more generous Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility has operated since 1 September 2009 but opens on 1 December 2009 for those taxpayers who do not presently have assets in Liechtenstein and that may be able to use it. These opportunities represent the last chance for UK taxpayers to make a voluntary disclosure to HMRC of any undeclared offshore funds on which historic tax is due and to take advantage of the restricted penalties and interest provisions. Future penalties for being caught in the future will be very severe Those who believe they will not be caught need to understand the degree to which tax authorities and financial institutions are now exchanging information and cooperating, even in many jurisdictions previously regarded as having impregnable banking secrecy. The trend is moving only in one direction although confidentiality in other respects should be maintained and tax authorities still do not have carte blanche to go on fishing expeditions. Read more...
The £30,000 annual charge for UK resident non-domiciliaries
From 6 April 2008 a non-domiciliary that has been resident in the UK for seven out of the previous nine tax years and wishes to be taxed on the remittance basis for a particular tax year must pay an annual charge of £30,000. 2008/09 will be the first UK tax year for which the charge will be relevant for many non-domiciliaries and so payment will need to have been made by 31 January 2010. If they have not already decided to pay they should be taking advice now. The £30,000 charge is treated as being tax rather than a fee and consequently the individual is required to nominate foreign income or capital gains for the UK tax year in question in respect of which the charge arises. Careful consideration must be given to the income or capital gains which are nominated since it is vital that such nominated funds are never remitted to the UK otherwise there the taxpayer may well end up paying significant additional tax.
Foreign losses
The Finance Act 2008 brought into effect provisions allowing a UK resident non-UK domiciled individual's foreign losses to be used to offset gains on foreign assets. However, UK resident non-domiciled individuals opting to be taxed on the remittance basis have to make a one time irreversible election in order to use foreign losses in this way and will need to have made their mind up by 31 January 2010 even if they are not yet liable to pay the £30,000 charge. Read more...
Rebasing elections for non-UK resident trusts
A reminder for all trustees of non-UK resident trusts created before 6 April 2008: The deadline for making a "rebasing election" for capital gains tax purposes is 31 January 2010 where either a UK resident beneficiary has received a capital payment in 2008/09 or the trustees have transferred some or all of the trust fund to another trust in 2008/09. The election can be made whether or not either of these triggering events has occurred. Read more...
Company residence: Laerstate BV v HMRC
HMRC has recently won a case on company residence for UK tax purposes. Laerstate BV v HMRC was decided in the First Tier Tax Tribunal (formerly the Special Commissioners) and, on the facts, the tribunal found that, although the company was incorporated in The Netherlands, it had been centrally managed and controlled from the UK, resulting in it being subject to UK corporation tax. Interestingly, the case appears to accept the principle that a company incorporated outside the UK can remain non-resident even though the sole shareholder (who was in this case also one of its directors) is resident in the UK. Read more...
Pre-nups and post-nups
Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements are now the new black. After years of being considered the preserve of only the very rich and famous, recent cases have demonstrated their value for a much wider audience as a wealth protection tool. Read more...