A look at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week...
Tuesday
Charles Russell Speechlys added an international tax team to its Singapore office. The new team consists of two partners, Kurt Rademacher and Ivan Lu, a legal director, Timmoney Ng, and a senior associate, Hara Kee. The team are all US-qualified attorneys and provide US legal advice to clients based in the APAC region who have business or personal interests or interaction with the US and need integrated, locally sourced advice on the applicable tax considerations.
Parents wishing to gift money in a tax efficient way to their children or grandchildren need to be aware of what they can and can't do before the end of the tax year on 5 April, accountancy and business advisory firm BDO advised. Each tax year, an individual can give away a total of £3,000 worth of gifts without these being added to the value of their estate. The individual can either gift £3,000 to one person or split it between a number of people. Under the small gift allowance, they can also give as many gifts of up to £250 per person as they want each tax year, as long as they have not used another allowance on the same person. [Read more]
Wednesday
Accounting and advisory firm Saffery promoted six directors to partner, with effect from 1 April. Based in the Harrogate office, David Bussey is a Chartered accountant and trust and estates practitioner, advising families and owner-managed businesses across Yorkshire and the North East. He is a member of the firm’s land and rural group and specialises in advising owners of landed estates and rural businesses on the many and often complex taxation and accounting issues they face, including succession planning, capital taxes mitigation, property transactions and general commercial advice.
Vistra, a business services provider, revealed a new strategic focus and organisational purpose following its merger with Tricor Group. The announcement follows the completion in July 2023 of the merger between Vistra and Tricor, a business expansion specialist in Asia, which created a business of over 9,000 staff in over 50 markets. Joining together, the firms have rebranded as Vistra. The merger was supported by BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII (EQT Private Capital Asia).
Thursday
HMRC failed to overturn a First-tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) judgment that two non-doms, Raj Sehgal and Sanjeev Mehan, should not be liable on the remittance basis in respect of payments made by an offshore company controlled by them to a third-party offshore company, causing the two to be released from liability under an indemnity they had given on a sale of shares in their UK business. In 2010, the taxpayers' Jersey company sold shares in Visage Group, a UK company, for cash and loan notes to a third party. The taxpayers indirectly owned IR, a company which owed Visage £6 million. After the purchase, it became clear that IR could not pay the £6 million to Visage and the taxpayers' indemnity was called upon. [Read more]
The Bahamas Court of Appeal rejected applications for leave to appeal with significant implications for arbitration in trust disputes, law firm Taylor Wessing said. Taylor Wessing acted for Matteo Volpi (Matteo), the son of well-known Italian billionaire Gabriele Volpi (Gabriele), who made his fortune in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. Matteo brought arbitration proceedings against his father, and Delanson, a trust company, in 2018 in relation to three trusts established by Gabriele which held billions of dollars of assets including African oil and gas interests in an African energy company, real estate, ships and an investment company, as well as Croatian and Italian football clubs, a stadium and an Italian water polo club. [Read more]
Friday
Private wealth and real estate law firm Boodle Hatfield promoted three of its employees to partners and four to senior associates. The promotions to partner are Rebecca Foden, Charlie Hewlett and Julie Howard. Ms Foden is part of the litigation department and has experience in dealing with various aspects of commercial litigation. Ms Howard is part of the private wealth division at the firm and specialises in tax and estate planning for individuals, families and trusts. Mr Hewlett works in the corporate and commercial department where he advises on a range of corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations and equity raises.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has struck off solicitor Michael Little, following his jailing of 20 months in New York in 2018 for helping a family evade estate and gift taxes through undeclared offshore bank accounts and trusts. The SDT rejected his application to have the proceedings stayed on the grounds that the SDT had no jurisdiction to hear the case. He was also ordered to pay costs of £11,400. [Read more]