20 July 2011
In his Budget 2011 the Chancellor announced that he would be introducing a new Inheritance Tax relief to encourage gifts to charity. A Consultation Document was published on 10 June 2011, inviting comments by 31 August 2011. Subject to these comments, the new measures are to take effect from April 2012.
20 July 2011
Those who hope to preserve their inherited wealth on divorce may take heart from a recent case in which the Court of Appeal left more than 90% of the family's assets with the wife, who had inherited them prior to her marriage.
20 July 2011
Whether expenditure is capital or revenue is a key question for traders in computing their profits for tax purposes. This is because revenue expenditure is deductible immediately.
03 June 2011
The result of a farmhouse APR case has just been published which is good news for farmers hoping for relief on their farmhouse despite their semi-retired status or small acreage.
12 April 2011
Speed up your application to register a charity with the Charity Commission.
Charities with annual income of over £5,000 (and which are not exempt) must be registered with the Charity Commission. The registration process involves an on-line application providing details of the activities (or proposed activities) of the charity and of the trustees.
31 March 2011
The Coalition emergency Budget last June dramatically overhauled the capital gains tax (CGT) rules. Out went the flat rate of 18% to be replaced by a maximum rate of 28%. There is still no allowance for indexation but Entrepreneurs' Relief remains to reduce the rate of CGT to 10% on the disposal of business assets.
31 March 2011
Three recent announcements suggest that inheritance tax and schemes to avoid it are coming under ever greater scrutiny.
31 March 2011
Points of interest from the 2011 Budget.
04 August 2010
A share-for-share exchange designed to help one shareholder avoid tax is likely to affect innocent shareholders, preventing them from obtaining rollover treatment.
22 July 2010
In what turned out to be Alastair Darling’s final Budget on 24 March, he decided to focus on optimistic growth forecasts with relatively few changes to the tax system in a bid to save his party from election defeat. This left the difficult decisions as to how to tackle the current budget deficit through control of public spending and taxation to be made after the general election; a problem he has now handed over to George Osborne.
05 May 2010
Agricultural property relief was allowed on the former home of a deceased farmer, despite it being unoccupied for 4 years before his death while he was in a nursing home.
09 April 2010
In what may have been the Chancellor's third and final Budget on 24 March, he decided to focus on optimistic growth forecasts with relatively few changes to the tax system. This leaves the difficult decisions as to how to tackle the current budget deficit problem of around £167 billion through control of public spending and taxation to be made after the general election.
09 April 2010
It was widely anticipated that an increase in the level of capital gains tax (CGT) would be announced in Budget 2010, however, the only change was an increase in the lifetime allowance for entrepreneurs' relief (ER) from £1 million to £2 million. Please click to read on.
06 January 2010
Jack Straw has issued a Ministerial Statement indicating that the UK will exercise its right to opt-out of the European Commission's proposed regulation governing succession and wills. The particular areas of concern are claw-back and the common connecting factor. Click on the link to read more.
16 November 2009
HMRC has in recent years become extremely keen to charge penalties where Executors fail to declare or undervalue assets comprised in a deceased's estate. For further details please click on the link.
16 November 2009
Following several years of consultation the European Union have proposed a Regulation with the objective of simplifying the procedure where someone dies owning assets in more than one EU country.