The law never stands still does it?
Disclaimer: LawSkills provides training for the legal industry and does not provide legal advice to members of the public. For help or guidance please seek the services of a qualified practitioner.
At the moment, in Private Client practice, we have:
- The Law Commission’s wide ranging review of the law relating to Wills which will undoubtedly result in a new Wills Act, sometime after Brexit, no doubt.
- The Law Commission’s inclusion in their recently announced 13th programme of work – Modernising Trust law for a Global Britain.
- The tax system is also being reviewed:
- The Office for Tax Simplification is reviewing IHT in general and could result in the abolition of IHT, middle England’s most hated tax
- Research undertaken on behalf of HM Treasury as to the estate planning decisions of clients based on use of reliefs
- HMRC are looking at simplifying trust taxation- again!
- The Probate service is moving to online applications. At present, this is only for estates:
- With one executor
- An original Will
- The deceased classed England & Wales as his/her permanent home
The hope of the service is to have more people, including Agents, using the online service in due course
- The operational process for IHT is currently under internal HMRC review to improve the customer’s journey
- The rules regarding trust administration for tax purposes were thrown into turmoil with the introduction of the Trust Registration Service but things are now steadying. So we have
- FATCA
- CRS – although Mishcon de Reya are challenging it
- Legal Entity Identifiers
- TRS
We need to factor all this into the costs of administering trusts.
I think that is truly enough to be going on with, don’t you?
The LawSkills Monthly Digest
Subscribe to our comprehensive Monthly Digest for insightful feedback on Wills, Probate, Trusts, Tax and Elderly & Vulnerable client matters
Not complicated to read | Requires no internet searching | Simply an informative pdf emailed to your inbox including practice points & tips
Subscribe now for monthly insightful feedback on key issues.
All for only £120 + VAT per year
(£97.50 for 10+)