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HMRC enquiries and assessments into domicile can be costly and time-consuming for the taxpayer. Dominic Lawrance and Hugh Gunson report on how to deal with them ‘The last few years have seen a major change of stance. The number of domicile enquiries has risen dramatically, as has the amount of HMRC attention devoted to them.’ …
Continue reading "Domicile: A long-running domestic saga"
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Geoffrey Shindler examines whether the current system does justice for children excluded from a parent’s will ‘The one thing that seems to be certain in English law is that this issue remains an important but entirely uncertain area.’ As Leo Tolstoy reminded us, in Anna Karenina, ‘All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy …
Continue reading "Musings from Manchester: Unhappy families"
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William East reviews two recent cases on out-of-time 1975 Act claims with different outcomes ‘The decision that “excusable delay” should be for “weeks or, at most, months”, absent “highly exceptional factors”, begs the question of what those factors might be and whether this sets the bar too high given the shortness of the initial time …
Continue reading "The 1975 Act: The clock is ticking… or is it?"
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Scott Taylor and Oliver Black investigate the factors that will be taken into account when establishing domicile ‘The concepts of “residence” and “intention” are key in considering whether one has adopted (or abandoned) a domicile of choice.’ The High Court recently tried a preliminary issue in the case of Proles v Kohli [2018] as to …
Continue reading "Domicile: Should I stay or should I go?"
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Justin Holmes reports on a case concerning the making of a deathbed statutory settlement to avoid the intestacy rules ‘CF had never been able to express any wishes, feelings, beliefs or values about what should happen to his estate after his death, and the judge had to do his best to put himself into CF’s …
Continue reading "Court of Protection: Standing in the donor’s shoes"
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A recent case provides helpful guidance on the financial consequences of assisting suicide. Alexa Payet explains ‘The steps which Alex took prior to his death, in an attempt to support Sarah in this process after he was gone, were crucial to the success of the application and assisted the court in reaching a decision at …
Continue reading "Forfeiture: What relief?"
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Fiona Lawrence and Julia Hardy explore what it will take for a court to allow a very late amendment to a will challenge claim ‘It is clear from the various authorities that each case turns on its own facts, and that best practice in assessing the merits of each application is to attempt to conduct …
Continue reading "Contested wills: Late for a very important date"
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Geoffrey Shindler has some suggestions for the governance of HMRC and the process by which tax legislation is imposed ‘We need to go back to the very first principles and challenge why we need to have so much tax legislation every year.’ There are times when I wonder not only whether there is any joined-up …
Continue reading "Musings from Manchester: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
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Mark Pawlowski and James Brown examine the possibility of using the mechanism of a residuary legatee in order to enforce a trust for non-charitable purposes ‘If there are no beneficiaries with equitable interests in the trust assets, there is technically no one “in whose favour the court can decree specific performance”.’ As trust lawyers will …
Continue reading "Trusts: Enforcing private purpose trusts"
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Mary Ashley explores a recent case considering the options by which trustees can extend their powers ‘In circumstances where trustees want to act outside of the powers which they expressly have, they will want to analyse closely what it is that they are seeking to do and therefore, the best way to do it – …
Continue reading "Trustees’ powers: Beyond the deed"
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