Matthews v HMRCC
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,...
Pankhania v Chandegra [2012] EWCA Civ 1438
January/February 2013 #126The claimant appealed from the decision of Judge Charles Harris QC to dismiss his claim seeking an order for sale of 7 Cossington Street, Leicester (the property) and the division of the sale proceeds in equal shares between him and the defendant. A declaration had been made by the judge that beneficial ownership of the property was vested solely in the defendant, despite the property having been conveyed into the joint names of the claimant and defendant. A simultaneous express declaration of trust had been made in the transfer declaring that the parties were to hold the property as ten...
Silber v HMRC [2012] UKFTT 700 (TC)
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...
Singapore Airlines Ltd & anr v Buck Consultants Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1542
January/February 2013 #126Singapore Airlines Ltd (SA) brought proceedings against Buck Consultants Ltd (BC) alleging negligence in the drafting by BC of a revised version of the rules of SA’s pension scheme (scheme). A preliminary issue was tried concerning the meaning of ‘earnings’ for the purposes of the scheme. That preliminary issue had to be resolved for the purposes of SA’s negligence claim against BC. However, BC had also been appointed by the court to represent the interests of the members of the scheme on the preliminary issue.
Four issues were appealed by SA. Only Issue 4 ...
Re the Ta-Ming Wang Trust Cause no. FSD 0089 of 2010
January/February 2013 #126The first plaintiff (TMW) and members of his family are the beneficiaries under the Ta-Ming Wang Trust (the trust). The trust was intended to take advantage of a well-established tax-saving structure under which a foreign national such as TMW immigrating into Canada could obtain a five-year Canadian tax holiday on foreign source income earned by a non-resident company, owned by a non-resident trustee; ie on income by way of dividends paid by the company to the trust during the five-year tax holiday. It was established by a settlement dated 2 May 1996 made between TMW’s mother as settlor ...
Thomas v Jeffery & ors [2012] EWCA Civ 693
January/February 2013 #126The appellant (Richard) had successfully brought an application for reasonable financial provision from the estate of his late father. This had been initially expressed as a family provision and proprietary estoppel claim for some 50% of the deceased’s estate. The proprietary estoppel claim was dropped but the level of provision claimed under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 remained unaltered.
Richard provided little information on his financial position until directed to do so by the recorder at trial. This late disclosure proved the...
Vimercati v BV Trustco Ltd & ors [2012] EWHC 1410 (Ch)
January/February 2013 #126The claimant, Ambra (A), who had been a beneficiary under the MBV Trust, disputed the price obtained by BV Securities for its 20% shareholding in Air Italy in view of certain subsequent transactions involving Meridiana and Air Italy Holdings, a company in which the third defendant and protector of the trust (G) had an interest through his investment holding company. A also threatened breach of trust proceedings against the trustees. G and the fourth and fifth defendants, his wife and son, remained beneficiaries under the trust but A’s interest had been severed under a deed of appoi...
Bieber & ors v Teathers Ltd [2012] EWCA Civ 1466
January/February 2013 #126The defendant (Teathers) promoted a series of unregulated collective investment schemes intended to take advantage of tax reliefs available on investments in TV productions. UK tax payers were entitled to write down 100% of any expenditure on a film or TV production certified as a British Qualifying Film. The schemes had not proved successful. Many of the productions were commercial failures and a number of them had not been certified as British Qualifying Films and were illegible for the tax relief that was the rationale behind the schemes. The claimants argued that money invested in th...
Bradbury & ors v Taylor & anr [2012] EWCA Civ 1208
January/February 2013 #126William Samuel Taylor (deceased) and his late wife lived in a large property, set in 15 acres of grounds, called Lower Manaton (property), near Callington in Cornwall. The deceased made a will in 1998 by which the defendants, who were his nephew and niece, were to be allowed to occupy the property for seven years after his death, on stated terms and conditions. At the same stage in late 2000 the deceased proposed that the defendants, who lived in Sheffield, should move to Cornwall and occupy part of the property with their two children. The first defendant favoured the idea; the second d...
Buzzoni & ors v HMRCC [2012] UKUT 360 (TCC)
January/February 2013 #126On 5 June 1996 Mrs Kamhi purchased a lease (the headlease) of a flat in Knightsbridge, London. On 21 November 1997 Mrs Kamhi granted an underlease (the underlease) to Ovalap Nominees Ltd. The underlease was granted without rent or premium being payable. On the same day Mrs Kamhi created by deed a settlement. The trustee was Legis Trust Ltd and the trust property was the underlease. Ovalap entered into the underlease as bare nominee for Legis Trust Ltd.
On 24 March 2004 Parkside (Knightsbridge) Residents Ltd then granted Mrs Kamhi a new lease over the flat commencing 1 April 2003. ...