LAWSKILLS
LATEST POLL QUESTION
Cohabitants & the intestacy rules
Do you approve of the Law Commission's suggestion to include cohabitants in the intestacy rules?
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Protecting farms post a flurry (or slurry!) of IHT cases - Arnander, McCall, Earl of Balfour
Farms and Estates are worth substantial sums of money which could result in large amounts of future inheritance tax liabilities (formerly known as “death duties”). The Tax Office is trying to collect a large amount of tax through attacks on farms and diversified farm activities.
LAWYER'S OPINION
Costs in Contentious & Non-contentious Probate & IPFD Act 1975 - Part 2
Following on from Part 1 (published in December 2009), Part 2 lists more precedents and principles to help recover the maximum amount of costs.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Discounted Gift Trusts (Part II): The Potential Disadvantages of a DGT into a Discretionary Trust
[In the last article we discussed how these work and their advantages].
The gifted Relevant Property (the settled trust fund minus the “carved out” discount) is now a CLT, not a PET as previously. If this Relevant Property value exceeds any exemptions and the settlor’s remaining NRB, there will be an immediate IHT charge on the excess at 20%, or 25% if the settlor pays the IHT.
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Four essential tips on how to increase your business for as little as £1 for each client
The problem Lawyers face is that people in general don’t have to come to them time and time again, as they do to, say, an Accountant. Nor do they wake up in the morning and say to themselves “I have a great bank balance at the moment, I think I will go down to my friendly local Law firm and spend some! In the main, people arrive at the door of a law firm because they have an important (and often unpleasant) life change, or some other external pressure.
WORKING SMARTER
Going Mobile
So you have your office IT all set up but what about when you are out and about?
A-Z GLOSSARY SEE COMPLETE LIST
Jointly Owned Property
Where real property is owned by two or more people the legal title is held on a joint tenancy (s.1 Law of Property Act 1925); however behind the trust of land imposed by the Trusts of Land & Appointments of Trustees Act 1996, the equitable interests, the interest of each co-owner in the proceeds of sale, can be either as ‘joint tenants’ or as ‘tenants in common’.
