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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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Guest Editorial: A moral duty

Duncan Bailey discusses the current focus on celebrities being ‘seen’ to pay their fair share of tax It seems we are moving to a position where everyone should be paying their fair share of tax and not just the minimum amount they can, albeit legally, get away with. I am writing this after reading in …
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Charities: Poor employees and poor relations

Paul Ridout examines the consequences of the Upper Tribunal’s determination on the Attorney General’s Reference on benevolent funds and certain other poverty charities The tribunal followed its decision in the Independent Schools Council case and confirmed that different charitable purposes have different tests of public benefit. One single evening lecture, which formed part of my …
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Estate Planning: Benefits and pitfalls

Robert Keylock provides an update on the usefulness of discounted gift plans after Watkins v HMRC [2012] The main potential inheritance tax benefit of DGPs is the immediate inheritance tax discount where the donor’s life expectancy is such that the annual payments have some value.When the tax on pre-owned assets came into force in April …
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Statutory Wills: Objective and fair?

Michael O’Sullivan reviews the case of Re JC [2012], which clarifies the current position with statutory wills and adoption The effect in law of an adoption is that the adopted child ceases to be regarded as the child of their natural parents and becomes, in the eyes of the law, the child of the adopters. …
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Trustees: Doing the right thing

Page v West [2010] elucidates the circumstances in which trustees should seek guidance from the court, as Olivia Knowles and Lynne Gregory explain Mr Justice Vos commented that it was unreasonable to expect trustees to seek planning permission in the current economic climate without the support of the majority of the beneficiaries.The application before the …
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Discretionary Trusts: DDD Settlements jolts the premise of the irrevocable

Ashley Crossley and Alexandra Demper analyse the decision in DDD Settlements [2011] and its confirmation of English case law Article 47 enables the Royal Court to consent to an arrangement varying or revoking all or any of the terms of a Jersey trust. In recent years, a number of cases in Jersey have considered the …
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Unincorporated Associations: Game, set and match

Sarah Foster finds an unexpected party benefits in Philippe v Cameron [2012], a dispute between a tennis club and a church The purpose of the 1954 Act was to validate and restrict to charitable purposes certain instruments that were pre-16 December 1952 and which provided for property to be held or applied for objects that …
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