Starting in 2007, the Newsdesk page will include news items and comments on technical topics relevant to tax practitioners.

• Tax planning for the 50 per cent rate (January 2010)

  With effect from 2010/11, a new 50 per cent rate of income tax will apply to individuals......READ MORE

• Offshore Property Holding Companies (December 2009)

  A simple and effective structure for non domiciliaries to hold a UK home now faces......READ MORE

• CGT Losses of Non Domiciliaries (November 2009)

  Up to 2007/08, those who were not domiciled in the United Kingdom could not claim relief against capital gains for losses realised on foreign assets.....READ MORE

• Employee Trusts (October 2009)

  Employee benefit trusts were at one time widely used as vehicles to avoid income tax liability on substantial bonuses paid to employees.....READ MORE

• EFURBS (September 2009)

  Efurbs are currently being marketed quite aggressively as a tax-efficient way of extracting profits from family companies.....READ MORE

• Business Property Relief – Still a Controversial Issue (August 2009)

  Yet another inheritance tax business property relief case has surfaced at the Special Commissioners.  The case has a number of features features which are peculiar to its own facts, but nevertheless there are some important conclusions which can be drawn from the decision.....READ MORE

• Bare Trusts for Children (July 2009)

  In 2006, changes were made to the tax treatment of virtually all trusts made during lifetime with the result that, unless the value of the assets transferred.....READ MORE

• Budget Break (May and June 2009)

• Deeds of Variation - Traps and Opportunities (April 2009)

  The Capital Transfer Tax legislation, as introduced in 1975, contained a specific provision to allow for what is commonly referred to as a deed of variation of a will.....READ MORE

• IHT business property relief: the going gets tougher (March 2009)

  A recent statement by HM Revenue & Customs Capital Taxes rather ominously announced that they are reviewing their approach in relation to claims for business property relief.....READ MORE

• Winter Break (December 2008 to February 2009)

• Minimising mineral taxes! (November 2008)

  Those who are lucky enough to have acquired property estates containing minerals of interest to industry will probably find that they are sitting on the UK equivalent of a gold mine.....READ MORE

• Becoming non-resident: staying overseas for a while will not suffice! (October 2008)

  HMRC has announced that it is rewriting the guidance booklet which sets out its normal practices in relation to what constitutes residence in the UK for tax purposes.....READ MORE

• Becoming non-resident: staying overseas for a while will not suffice! (October 2008)

  HMRC has announced that it is rewriting the guidance booklet which sets out its normal practices in relation to what constitutes residence in the UK for tax purposes.....READ MORE

• Avoiding IHT on family company shareholdings (September 2008)

  Business property qualifies for 100% relief from inheritance tax, subject to many detailed conditions and exclusions. It is becoming evident that HM Revenue & Customs.....READ MORE

• Annual Break (August 2008)

• Capital allowances: machinery and plant (July 2008)

  Major changes have taken place in relation to the capital allowances regime for machinery and plant. Some of the changes are in the taxpayer's favour, but others will reduce reliefs available.....READ MORE

• Delay caused unnecessary tax bill (June 2008)

  A recent case at the Special Commissioners has highlighted the importance of taking good tax advice at an early stage. If things are left until it is too late, there may be little which can be done to remedy the position....READ MORE

• The new capital gains tax entrepreneurs' relief (May 2008)

  With the abolition of the capital gains tax taper relief regime with effect from 6 April 2008, and with it the end of the favourable effective rate of tax for business assets, the Government was persuaded after some outcry that business assets deserved more beneficial treatment under the new capital gains tax regime...READ MORE

• Update for non domiciliaries (April 2008)

  The draft legislation on the remittance basis of taxation which was published in January this year has been substantially revised...READ MORE

• Transferable inheritance tax nil rate bands (March 2008)

  In the past, the well advised have always taken great care in drafting the provisions of their wills to ensure that the inheritance tax nil rate band does not go to waste...READ MORE

• Major Reform of the Capital Gains Tax Regime effective from 6 April (February 2008)

  As has been widely discussed in the national press, the capital gains tax regime is to be simplified with effect from 6 April 2008...READ MORE

• Non-Domiciliaries Face Harsh Tax Regime (January 2008)

  The long awaited draft legislation is respect of the taxation of non-domiciliaries claiming the remittance basis was published early in January and it has proved to be much more tightly drawn than was expected...READ MORE

• New Provisions to Counteract Income Shifting (December 2007)

  Having been defeated in the House of Lords in the Arctic Systems case, HMRC announced immediately afterwards that it would bring forward new legislation with the broad effect of reinstating the tax position which it argued for in that case...READ MORE

• All change for non-domiciliaries? (November 2007)

  Those resident in the United Kingdom but not domiciled here received a shock in the Pre-Budget Report this autumn in which proposals were announced which effectively mean the withdrawal next year of the remittance basis of taxation for those who have been resident in the United Kingdom for more than seven years. All but the very wealthy can escape, and they would do so by paying what amounts to an 'entry fee' of £30,000 per annum to enable them to continue with taxation on the present basis...READ MORE

• Another budget bombshell!! (October 2007)

  The annual budget in March 2006 introduced such far reaching capital tax changes that taxpayers might have hoped to have a respite for quite a while from further shocks of that type. Unfortunately yet more unexpected changes of wide impact were announced in the Pre Budget Report in October this year, just over two months after the 2007 Finance Act received the Royal Assent, so taxpayers clearly need to be prepared for the unexpected at any time...READ MORE

• Let property as a business (September 2007)

  A fascinating news story was widely reported in the daily press in recent weeks concerning a couple who had taken up residence at a Travelodge hotel. Apparently they moved in many years ago and enjoyed the life of having their room cleaned for them and their meals cooked in a nearby restaurant that they decided to stay on a long term basis...READ MORE

• Rectifying a faulty deed (August 2007)

  Mistakes in legal documentation are certainly not unknown but rectifying them can be quite a troublesome matter. Once a document has been signed as a deed by all parties and dated, it has full legal effect and it is treated as accurately setting out the intentions of the parties. If in fact it does not, the question then arises as to what can be done about it...READ MORE

• Arctic Systems: do not spend too long celebrating! (July 2007)

  Now this is not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning! Those celebrated words of Churchill aptly sum up where we are with Arctic Systems. The taxpayers have won in the House of Lords but much more is yet to be heard on this topic. HM Revenue & Customs have already said that they will bring forward proposals to change the law and discussions on this will take place....READ MORE

• Pre-owned assets following the Finance Bill 2007 (June 2007)

  The Finance Act 2004 introduced the legislation relating to pre-owned assets which was broadly designed to collect some tax on an annual basis from those who had successfully avoided the gift with reservation provisions for inheritance tax...READ MORE

• Tax case makes the headlines (May 2007)

  It is not often that a decision of the Special Commissioners makes the main news story in the daily press, but the decision in Phizackerley v HMRC did exactly that a short time ago. As the news reports betrayed a complete misunderstanding of the case (including blaming it on Gordon Brown as a new stealth tax!), we will explain here what the case was really all about and what the true significance of it was.....READ MORE

• Pre-owned assets: Budget update (April 2007)

The annual income tax charge on 'pre-owned assets' was introduced in the Finance Act 2004 and this was designed to either collect tax each year from all those who had previously entered into inheritance tax planning schemes or alternatively force them to unwind the schemes thereby reinstating the inheritance tax liability.....READ MORE

• Wills, trusts and estates post Finance Act 2006 (March 2007)

The Finance Act 2006 has completely destroyed the careful structure of the previous inheritance tax provisions relating to trusts. In doing so, it introduced a dichotomy between trusts set up under wills and those set up in lifetime, with a further subdivision for trusts set up by a parent under a will and those set up by some other relative by will....READ MORE

• Unscrambling inheritance tax schemes (February 2007)

Many inheritance tax schemes have become uneconomic following the introduction of pre-owned asset tax. For example, a popular scheme at one time was the ‘Ingram’ scheme in relation to the main residence; this involved the taxpayer keeping a leasehold interest in the residence and giving away the freehold to his or her children or to a trust for them....READ MORE

• Revenue practice on residence (January 2007)

  A recent case before the Special Commissioners concerning the residence and domicile of a taxpayer has caused sufficient shock to be widely discussed in the columns of the money pages of weekend newspapers....READ MORE

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