A look at the most stories on eprivateclient this week….
Monday
International law firm Charles Russell Speechlys hired Vanessa Duff as a partner within its family team. Ms Duff joined the firm’s Hong Kong office from Withers Hong Kong. She has over 15 years of experience advising high net worth individuals, professionals and entrepreneurs on all aspects of family law.
HMRC opened a 12 week consultation on new proposals in an effort to tackle the abuse of charity tax relief. It has identified four areas – tainted charity donations, approved charitable investments, non-charitable expenditure and charity filing obligations – in which HMRC has deemed existing anti-avoidance rules to be insufficient. The tainted donations rules are intended to prevent donors and connected persons from obtaining a financial benefit from their donation, but HMRC considers these rules to be “overly complex” to apply to certain instances of abusive behaviour.
Litigation law firm Boies Schiller Flexner hired Pierre Valentin as a partner focused on art law. Mr Valentin brings a practice group of five lawyers with him, including Fionnuala Rogers, Tom Christopherson and Penny Walker, who will join as of counsel, and Emelyne Peticca and Mona Yapova, who will join as associates. The team – assisting clients all over the world – will divide its time between London and Milan. Mr Valentin has over 25 years of experience advising art collectors, art galleries, art dealers, auction houses, artists, museums, nonprofit organisations, as well as insurance companies and art investment funds.
The UK and Swiss governments signed an agreement recognising UK professional qualifications in Switzerland. The deal, which was signed by UK Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin on 14 June, aims to boost trade between the UK and Switzerland. Under the agreement, UK-qualified professionals in regulated sectors who wish to have their qualifications recognised in Switzerland will have a certain and transparent system to do so and vice versa.
Offshore law firm Carey Olsen appointed two new managing partners, effective 1 July 2023. Tom Carey will be leading the firm's Guernsey office and Alex Hall Taylor KC in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Mr Carey joined Carey Olsen in Guernsey in 2004 and is an established member of the firm's executive board and strategy committee. He has taken over from incumbent managing partner Russell Clark who, after 17 years on the local management team, will continue to be a partner and active member of several of the firm's management committees. Mr Taylor has been with Carey Olsen since 2020 and in addition to being the new BVI managing partner, is also a barrister, King's Counsel, partner and head of the firm's BVI dispute resolution and litigation team. Mr Taylor takes over from partner Clinton Hempel, who set up Carey Olsen's BVI office a decade ago.
Half of Britons could be missing out on inheriting assets from friends and family, according to research from UK full-service law firm JMW Solicitors. It recently published results from a new survey of 1,000 respondents revealing that half (50.05 percent) of Britons do not understand the grounds on which a will can be contested. Despite this, 80 percent of Britons claim to know what it means to contest a will.
International law firm Withers appointed Jocelyn Tsao as managing director of its Hong Kong office, making her the youngest managing director of Withers' 17 global offices. Ms Tsao has been with Withers for over a decade and has led the Hong Kong divorce and family team since 2022. She also heads both the firm's environment and pro bono committees in APAC and is actively involved in the firm's well-being committee.
The Law Society of England and Wales said divorcing couples should not be subject to mandatory mediation in response to a government consultation. The professional body argued that putting barriers in place to attending court is likely to deny access to justice. The consultation, launched in March, is seeking views on supporting earlier resolution of private family law arrangements. In its response to the consultation the Law Society is calling for mediation to not be mandatory in divorce cases; early advice for all (subject to means testing); and support for domestic abuse victims as they go through the court process, which the Law Society said has not been detailed in the government’s proposals.
Only half of LGBTQ+ workers in the UK are comfortable being out about their sexual orientation with colleagues at work, according to new research from big four advisory firm Deloitte. Deloitte’s 2023 LGBT+ Inclusion @ Work report looked at the experiences of 5,474 LGBTQ+ people in the workplace in multiple sectors across 13 countries, through the lens of sexual orientation and gender identity. The research found that, despite employees’ hesitancy to talk about any aspect of their private lives at work (49 percent in the UK compared to 37 percent globally) and concerns about being treated differently (shared by 43 percent of UK respondents compared to 39 percent globally), more UK LGBTQ+ employees feel comfortable being out at work with anyone than their global counterparts (52 percent in the UK compared to 43 percent globally).
The amount of unpaid UK tax has remained at an all-time low of 4.8 percent, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) revealed. The figure came following HMRC estimating the difference between the total amount of tax expected to be paid and the total amount of tax actually paid. HMRC’s research showed a long-term reduction in the tax gap. It said errors, a lack of sufficient care, evasion and criminal attacks all contribute to the tax gap, which has fallen from 7.5 percent in 2005/2006 to 4.8 percent in 2021/2022. Tax evasion and the hidden economy made up 20 percent of the tax HMRC estimated it did not collect, whilst tax avoidance stood at four percent. In monetary terms, the most recent figures put the difference at £36 billion for the 2021/2022 tax year. This has increased from £31 billion in 2020/2021.