A look back at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week…
Monday
Law firm Mishcon de Reya and its former head of sport are set to face prosecution over the way the company handled money for some of its sports clients. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said both the law firm and Elizabeth Ellen have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT).
Offshore law firm Collas Crill appointed Fritha Ford as Of Counsel in Jersey. Ms Ford spent the past five years at Walkers and worked before that at Mourant. A Jersey advocate since 2012, Ms Ford was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2008 and has received industry recognition for her work, including inclusion in eprivateclient’s Channel Islands Top 35 Under 35 for two years running (2018 and 2019).
Tuesday
HMRC shut down its specialist unit focused on Family Investment Companies (FICs) after it found no correlation between usage and non-compliant behaviours. The team will be subsumed into the wealthy and mid-sized business compliance unit. FICs will now be looked at as “business as usual” rather than having their own team, HMRC said.
Saffery Champness Registered Fiduciaries appointed Yumei Zhang as a client director in its Geneva office. Dr Zhang has nearly 20 years’ industry experience. She specialises in advising clients originating from Asia Pacific with complex multi-jurisdictional requirements. In her new role, she joins a team focused on Asia Pacific and will aim to develop and serve the firm’s growing client base of HNWIs and their families based in the region, especially those with a Chinese connection.
Wednesday
London, Leeds and Reading-based tax boutique Tax Advisory Partnership (TAP) expanded its trust compliance and advisory team with the recruit of a new senior manager, James Graham. Mr Graham’s key practice area is non-UK domiciled individuals, and UK and offshore trusts. Mr Graham joins the existing team at TAP providing these services and will expand the current team.
Tilney Smith & Williamson appointed Chris Grigg as its new chair. He will join the group’s board and - following FCA approvals - will take over from Will Samuel as chair. Mr Samuel was appointed as chair of Tilney Bestinvest in January 2017, which subsequently became Tilney Group. Following the merger in September 2020, he became the first chair of Tilney S&W. Mr Grigg has 40 years’ financial services and commercial experience. He is chair of the newly formed UK Infrastructure Bank and is senior independent director at BAE Systems.
Thursday
HMRC regained almost £464 million from footballers, clubs and agents after a six-year investigation into the sport. In the past year, the revenue recovered £55.6 million following investigations into 93 footballers over potential tax avoidance breaches, according to a Daily Mirror investigation.
Butterfield Bank entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with the US Attorney’s Office and agreed to pay $5.6 million to the United States for assisting US taxpayer-clients in opening and maintaining undeclared foreign bank accounts from 2001 through 2013.
Friday
The Ingenious Media Group secured a victory against HMRC in the England and Wales Court of Appeal (EWCA). The EWCA reversed the Upper Tax Tribunal’s decision in the long-running litigation regarding film investment schemes.
According to PAM Insight’s latest work habits in the private wealth sector survey, the vast majority (96 percent) of private wealth professionals believe the pandemic will drive either ‘much more’ or ‘somewhat more’ homeworking on a permanent basis. Just four percent predict there will be the same amount of homeworking as there was before the pandemic. No one predicted there would be less homeworking than before the pandemic.