Musings From Manchester: Summer escape?

Geoffrey Shindler reflects on changing practices and definitions in tax law ‘At what point do we derive less out of the state than we put into it? Only 50% of the country are truly taxpayers. The other 50% take more out of the state than they put into it.’It is now that time of the …
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Trusts: A long-term solution

Keith Wallace makes the case for using a trust corporation ‘Any risk-averse professional firm should be seeking to consolidate its trusteeship work centrally to avoid regulatory and reputational exposure for any non-compliance.’UK trusts are said to number 170,000, according to gossip around the register of trusts being compiled by HMRC. Most of these will be …
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Constructive Trusts: More than words?

The courts will sometimes give effect to oral agreements for the transfer of land. David Sawtell examines recent case law ‘The courts have afforded some considerable protection to trustees and beneficiaries of land from the inadvertent creation of informal rights over property. The unanimity principle has achieved some prominence as a consequence.’ In order to …
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Equitable Tracing: Overdrawn accounts and backward tracing

Mark Pawlowski considers the case for accepting backwards tracing as part of English law ‘A debt is an asset in the hands of the creditor and so can provide a basis for tracing in relation to the creditor’s assets.’ In Bishopsgate Investment Management Ltd (in liquidation) v Homan [1994], the Court of Appeal held that …
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Trusts: 30 years’ flaw

The Cayman Court has provided clarity over what happens in the event of absent or defective protector consent. Robert Lindley explains ‘There was potential for payments to beneficiaries and trustees, investment decisions, and the administration of business assets to be considered invalid as they had been made without the authority of all of the trustees.’Any …
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Wills: Flexible interpretation

Fiona Campbell-White and Henrietta Watson discuss the current approach of the courts to the construction and rectification of wills ‘When interpreting a contract, the aim is to identify the intention of the party or parties to the document by interpreting the words used in their documentary, factual and commercial context without reference to any subjective …
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Tax: Testing the waters

Steve Appleton and Joshua Eaton outline HMRC’s new approach to trusts and the taxation of index-linked loans ‘The nature of an index-linked loan between trustees and the surviving spouse represents a personal contractual relationship rather than a commercial one.’Before the introduction of the transferable nil rate band (TNRB) on 9 October 2007, the nil rate …
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Charity Law: What is charitable?

Simrun Garcha reports on the charitable status and disposal of assets of a now defunct religious sect ‘While this case does not decide new matters of principle, it is likely to be of interest to charity law practitioners given that it provides an insight into some complex issues.’The High Court’s recent decision in Buckley v …
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