A look at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week…
Monday
The Royal Court of Jersey fined LGL Trustees £550,000 for failing to comply with anti-money laundering requirements. LGL pleaded guilty on 4 December to two related offences under Article 37(4) of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999 for breaches of the Money Laundering Order.
Self-Assessment taxpayers will not be charged a five percent late payment penalty if they pay their tax or set up a payment plan by 1 April, HMRC announced. Normally, a five percent late payment penalty is also charged on any unpaid tax that is still outstanding on 3 March. But this year, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, HMRC is giving taxpayers more time to pay or set up a payment plan.
Tuesday
International law firm Withers hired charity law and philanthropy specialist Philip Reed as a partner in its London office. Mr Reed joined the firm's charity team from Farrer & Co, where he was counsel in the firm's charity & community team, working with domestic and foreign clients of all sizes, including major national groups.
HM Treasury announced that instead of launching consultations on new tax changes on Budget day (3 March 2021), tax-related consultations and calls for evidence will now be published on 23 March 2021. Chris Sanger, EY’s head of tax policy, welcomed the move as recent Budgets have seen consultations on future tax policies being “slowly drip fed following the big day” leading to “much uncertainty as to when these important documents were going to be released, and risked the consultations being lost amidst other publications.”
Wednesday
UK accountancy firm Hillier Hopkins warned that HMRC will have crypto assets in its Budget spotlight as Bitcoin breaks the US$50,000 mark and with capital gains tax expected to increase in line with income tax rates. HMRC already requires Coinbase, the trading platform, to share details of investments and trades over £5,000 from individuals with investors already receiving notifications from HMRC.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to extend the stamp duty holiday in next week's Budget, according to reports in The Times. The rumoured extension comes as many are set to miss out on property purchases if the holiday ends at the end of March.
Thursday
Litigation law firm Ontier launched £3.5 billion legal proceedings against a number of Bitcoin developers on behalf of Tulip Trading Limited (TTL), a Seychelles company whose primary beneficial owner is Dr Craig Wright, the inventor of Bitcoin. The defendants in this action are the developers for BTC, BCH, BCH ABC and BSV.
Trust services provider Zedra appointed Brieanne Runsten as vice president, global expansion. Her appointment followed the completion of Zedra’s acquisition of Fitzgerald & Law in September 2020. She will act as a key contact point for HR, finance, legal and C-suite executives as they look to expand into EMEA and APAC markets.
Friday
South Africa announced that it is launching a separate unit to focus on taxpayers with wealth and complex financial arrangements. The unit, which will be known as High Wealth Individual Taxpayer Segment (HWI) will initially be co-located with the Large Business & International Taxpayer Segment (LB&I).
Collyer Bristow's Aidan Grant examined the tax implications that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex face having left the UK to start afresh in California.