November 2014 #161 – Law Journals

Musings From Manchester: Avoiding the chaos of intestacy

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Geoffrey Shindler argues that it should be a legal requirement to make a will ‘We all know of the difficulties that can arise when one party to an unmarried couple dies without making a will.’We like to think that we live in a ‘free society’. I think what we mean by this is that we …

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Trust Management: Extra time and possible penalties?

The current state of play with HMRC v Murray Group Holdings has lessons for lax trustees. Catharine Bell and Nicole Aubin-Parvu provide an update ‘HMRC argued that where an employee was given practical access to or control of monies it mattered not that he did not have absolute legal title to them.’The unsuccessful appeal by …

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Charity Law: Staying out of it

Mark Herbert QC discusses the implications of Shergill v Khaira ‘The court will still not adjudicate on the truth or validity of religious beliefs, but it must not shy away from deciding on their existence where that is necessary in order to determine legal issues which are themselves justiciable.’ In Shergill v Khaira the Supreme …

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Gifts With Reservation: A win for the taxpayer

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Mary Ashley gives an update on the long-running case of Buzzoni v HMRC ‘Buzzoni provided a rare opportunity for the Court of Appeal to clarify how the gifts with reservation rules apply.’ The reservation of benefit rules in relation to inheritance tax (IHT) have always been a hiccup in the planning context. This has led …

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Succession: Difficult ties

Siân Hodgson examines the dangers of informal farming arrangements between family members in Creasey v Sole ‘The judge found it “wholly unreal” to analyse the arrangement between Michael and his parents as one which conferred upon him a right to exclude them.’ Creasey v Sole [2013] was a dispute between six brothers and sisters about …

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Costs: Anything to declare?

Victoria Sara-Kennedy considers Al-Sadi v Al-Sadi a departure from the usual costs rule on discontinuance ‘Practitioners should always remind clients before they issue their claim that they must be prepared to meet the risks and liabilities which go hand in hand with issuing a claim.’ What can a claimant do when their claim is undermined …

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Mediation: After Jackson

Adam Carvalho and Lizzy Sainsbury set out two cases where the courts had to consider whether a refusal to mediate was reasonable ‘At the time of deciding whether or not to accept an offer to mediate, which may be at a very early stage of the litigation and sometimes at the pre-action stage, it may …

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IHT And Pensions: Charge ahead?

Hugh Cumber finds Parry v HMRC provides welcome clarity of the circumstances in which IHT can arise in pension schemes ‘It is clear that a transfer between schemes with the express purpose of achieving a saving to IHT for the “death” beneficiaries could not be saved by s10, particularly considering the extensive discussion of mixed …

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