Loring v Woodland Trust [2013] EWHC 4400 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2014 #139The testatrix, T, died on 1 September 2011 leaving an estate with a net value of £680,805. Her will, dated 2 February 2001, included provision for a nil rate band legacy for her children and grandchildren under clause 5 which stated:
‘MY TRUSTEES shall set aside out of my residuary estate assets or cash of an aggregate value equal to such sum as is at the date of my death the amount of my unused nil rate band for inheritance tax and to hold the same for such of the following as shall survive me.’
The residue was left to the first defendant, the Woodland Trust ...
Best v HMRC
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2014 #138The appellant was the executor of Alfred Buller. On Mr Buller’s death there was a transfer of value of 25,000 shares in Bullick Developments (1986) Ltd (the company). The company owned and managed the Valley Business Centre (the business centre). HMRC determined pursuant to s221 Inheritance Tax Act 1985 (the IHTA 1985) that the shares in the company were not relevant business property for the purposes of s104 IHTA 1984, having regard to s105(3) IHTA 1984, which prevents inter alia shares in a business whose activities mainly or wholly consist of ...
Kevern v Ayres & anr [2014] EWHC 165 (Ch)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2014 #138Raymond Ayres deceased died intestate on 4 June 2008. The claimant is the deceased’s sister and the first defendant his wife.
As the deceased left no issue, his estate devolved according to the intestacy rules. Accordingly, his chattels and a statutory legacy of £200,000 went to the first defendant absolutely and the remainder of his estate was divided equally between the claimant and first defendant.
In these circumstances, the first defendant intimated a claim for reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s estate. Given the potential for post-death i...
HMRCC v Hanson [2013] UKUT 0224 (TCC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2013 #131Mr Hanson (the respondent) is the trustee for a trust created in 1957 by his grandfather, which gave his father Joseph Hanson (the deceased) a life interest. The trust consisted of a house in Milton Keynes.
The deceased lived in the house until 1978 and when he moved out the respondent moved in. There was no change in ownership of the property. The Hansons are a farming family and at the time of his father’s death the respondent owned and farmed 128 acres of land nearby, he rented a further 28 acres and farmed an additional 67 acres co-owned by him and the deceased and ran t...
The Trustees of David Zetland Settlement v HMRCC [2013] UKFTT 284
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | July/August 2013 #131The appellant trustees appealed from a notice of determination dated 16 February 2010 whereby HMRC refused inheritance tax business property relief on the basis that immediately before the ten-year anniversary on 22 September 2007, none of the property comprised in the settlement was relevant business property for the purposes of s104 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA). HMRC contended that the business was excluded under s105(3) IHTA in that it consisted ‘mainly of… making or holding investments’.
The principal asset of the settleme...
HMRC v Pawson [2013] UKUT 050 (TCC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | April 2013 #128The Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) appealed from the decision of the Tax Chamber of the First tier Tribunal (FTT) dated 14 December 2011 ([2012] WTLR 665) to allow an appeal against a notice of determination dated 1 October 2008. The respondents were the personal representatives of Nicolette Vivian Pawson (Mrs Pawson). The notice had determined that Mrs Pawson’s 25% interest in a property known as Fairhaven, Thorpeness, Suffolk (Fairhaven) was subject to inheritance tax on a deemed disposal at the date of her death. Fairhaven was a large bungalow o...
Matthews v HMRCC
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2013 #126The late Mrs Matthews (D) invested approximately £95,000 in a Building Society account with her son, the claimant, John Matthews (M) in 1999. The words ‘either signature’ were included in the special instructions for operation of the account. Between 1999 and 19 January 2007 when D died there were no withdrawals from the account and both D and M included half the interest on their tax returns. M claimed that D intended to make an immediate gift of the moneys in the account to him on the date it was opened and that he could have used that money for what ever purpose he wished,...
Silber v HMRC [2012] UKFTT 700 (TC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | January/February 2013 #126By his will dated 12 May 1997, Martin Moses Menachem Lerner (deceased) divided his net residuary estate into ten equal shares between the appellant as to nine shares and the Chay Charitable Trust (CCT) as to one share. Subsequently, the deceased gifted £60,000 cash to the appellant and transferred in excess of £400,000 worth of quoted shares to the CCT. Following the deceased’s death on 21 October 1999, a disappointed beneficiary under a former will disputed the validity of the last will on the grounds of testamentary incapacity, but this was settled on 22 October 2001 on terms tha...
Hanson v HMRC [2012] UKFTT 95 (TC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2012 #119Joseph Nicholas Hanson (the appellant) appealed against a notice of determination dated 3 October 2005 that had determined that a farmhouse occupied by the appellant as his home at 11 The Green, Great Horwood, Milton Keynes (the house) was not agricultural property for the purposes of inheritance tax relief. HMRC’s position was that the required nexus between a farm building and agricultural land was common ownership and common occupation. The appellant submitted that the required nexus was common occupation only. It was further submitted by the appellant that his father, Joseph Ch...
Pawson (dec’d) v HMRCC [2012] UKFTT 51 (TC)
Wills & Trusts Law Reports | May 2012 #119The appellants were the personal representatives of Nicolette Vivian Pawson (Mrs Pawson) and appealed against a notice of determination dated 1 October 2008. The notice had determined that Mrs Pawson’s 25% interest in a property known as Fairhaven, Thorpeness, Suffolk (Fairhaven) was subject to inheritance tax on a deemed disposal at the date of her death. The appellants contended that Fairhaven was entitled to relief as a relevant business property. Fairhaven was a large bungalow overlooking the sea in a holiday area. It had made a profit for each year since 2003, save for 2005/06...