January/February 2013 #143 – Law Journals

Musings From Manchester: Plus ça change

Being at the end of the business line is no bad thing, concludes Geoffrey Shindler The UK Giving Report has stated that money donated to charity between 2010/11 and 2011/12 fell by £1.7bn to £9.3bn. The last time it was below £10bn was 2004/5.Those of you who read this journal with an eagle eye from …

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Trustees: Taking it personally

Trustees v Capmark Bank reminds us that trustees can be personally liable to third parties, as Marilyn McKeever discusses Trustees who enter into commercial agreements with third parties are personally liable on those contracts and they must be careful to protect their own position. The case of Trustees v Capmark Bank [2012] is a salutary …

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Unincorporated Associations: When to litigate

Sarah Clune looks at Rai, a rare case in which the High Court considered an application that the Charity Commission had refused to authorise Arguments within charities are notoriously expensive, possibly because each party thinks that they are in the right and only rarely does action directly affect the pockets of the individuals involved. The …

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Charity Mergers: A missed opportunity

Joshua Winfield looks at the lessons of Re Longman The executors no longer wished to exercise their discretion in favour of the company. They therefore issued a Part 8 claim under Part 64 of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. Section 75F of the Charities Act 1993 (now s311 of the Charities Act 2011) (s75F) provides …

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Trustees: Anticipating family fallout

Scott has valuable lessons about the removal of trustees, as Ashley Crossley and Imogen Buchan-Smith explain In the judge’s provisional view, an independent professional trustee should be appointed as an additional trustee to ensure that decisions would be taken in the interests of the beneficiaries as a whole. The case is both a reminder of …

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Trusts: Distinguishing characteristics

Jo Summers summarises the key points of HMRC’s consultation on vulnerable beneficiary trusts The current system of tax reliefs for vulnerable beneficiary trusts is overly complex. How do you define vulnerability? That is the question raised by HMRC’s recent consultation on vulnerable beneficiary trusts. It may be easy to spot vulnerability but it is harder …

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Charities: Can discrimination be justified?

Sarah Clune gives an update on Catholic Care’s appeal on same-sex adoption Where charities are pursuing what is regarded as a public activity (such as child adoption), they no longer necessarily have freedom of action. This is the price to be paid for living and working in a liberal-minded democracy. On 2 November, the Upper …

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Deathbed Planning: Conserving family wealth

In the first of two articles, Julia Rangecroft sets out the best approach to deathbed planning The client should be encouraged to make gifts sufficient to utilise the current year’s allowances, and, if they survive to the commencement of a further tax year, further gifts can be made. Mitigating capital taxes is frequently a financial …

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