Probate: Do ask, do tell

Hutchings v HMRC [2015] provides comfort for executors given inaccurate information by beneficiaries. Marilyn McKeever gives the lowdown ‘The tribunal concluded that Clayton chose not to tell the executors about the account in order to evade paying tax on the money. It considered that he never intended to disclose the gift to HMRC and, accordingly, …
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Capital Gains Tax: A question of interpretation

Alex Tamosius explains the implications of Foulser v HMRC [2015] ‘The difference of opinion between the Foulsers and HMRC on the question of valuation is striking, but it is worth pausing from the tribunal’s answer to consider the more obvious question – why has it taken eight years from the Court of Appeal’s decision in …
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Powers Of Attorney: Taken to task

Iain Managhan offers an update on recent revocation of power of attorney cases ‘It is clear… that certain considerations need to be discussed with the donor. Raising these potential problems and asking the donors to consider the possibility of such outcomes should minimise the likelihood of appointing people who may be unsuitable.’There have been a …
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Charities: Breaking the mould

In part two of his article on Young v AG [2012], Charles King-Farlow considers the cases the judge relied upon to make the decision ‘There is no specific formula for the creation of a binding trust under English law. What is necessary is that a person holds property for the benefit of other persons or …
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Musings From Manchester: Times past, times present and tax

There is nothing new under the sun, especially with taxation. Geoffrey Shindler takes a tour through the ages ‘It is quite remarkable that all of these major pieces of legislation, which took up hours and hours of Parliamentary time, had a very short-lived existence, raised remarkably little money and, in retrospect, produced more noise than …
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Trusts: An elaborate charade

Financial remedy case Joy v Joy-Morancho [2015] has valuable pointers for practitioners. Alexandra Hirst and Sofie Hoffman examine the outcome ‘The sensible approach must surely be to continue to tread carefully and advise trustees to be cautious when taking any steps which might render the trust susceptible to an argument that it has been nuptialised …
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Co-Ownership: Share with care

Sukhninder Panesar discusses Barnes v Phillips [2015], which has lessons on the role of inference and imputation in shared ownership disputes ‘An inference is an important exercise in establishing whether the parties’ original beneficial ownership has changed, and imputation is integral to establishing the exact shares once a finding of change in intention is established.’ …
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