The England & Wales Court of Appeal has allowed a woman’s claim for reasonable provision from her mother’s estate, even though she was not dependent on her mother and had been specifically and carefully disinherited by her.
Read the full story at the STEP Journal here
Source: Step Journal
Probate expert Professor Lesley King analyses the two recent appeals involving the RSPCA: the Gill case regarding the validity of an elderly lady’s will, and the Sharp case regarding construction of a will leaving a nil-rate-band legacy.
Sources:
STEP
The Law Gazette
The average middle class parent expects to leave an inheritance of GBP335,285, according to a survey of 1,000 adults by wealth planning firm Heartwoods. One in four of them plan to make lifetime gifts to their children to mitigate the resulting IHT liability.
Source:
Heartwood Wealth Management
STEP
The England and Wales High Court has made a 1975 Act award of GBP110,000 to a woman whose cohabiting partner died intestate. Christina Cattle and David Evans had bought and sold several properties together during a long standing relationship
According to the annual Tax Actions Report released by ‘Unbiased.co.uk’,UK taxpayers will waste nearly £1.3 billion this year due to poor inheritance tax (IHT) planning. This tax wastage is only set to increase further in the future after the chancellor announced in 2010 that the threshold would remain frozen for four years at £325,000 rather than rising in line with inflation.
The top three findings in the report are as follows:
Sources:
In an interview with the BBC the new chairman of the House of Commons health committee says vulnerable elderly people are being unfairly forced to pay for health care:
“Stephen Dorrell said patients with conditions such as dementia used to get free care in NHS geriatric hospitals.
But the number of places has fallen by nearly 80% in the UK over the past 20 years – despite the ageing population.
He said this had pushed people into the means-tested social care system where they were often charged for treatment.
As well as dementia patients this includes people such as stroke victims and those with Parkinson’s disease who struggle to get the NHS to pay for medical treatment they receive.
Mr Dorrell, who was health secretary towards the end of John Major’s time as prime minister, said: “People are being charged for care that they would have got free from the NHS 20 or 30 years ago.”
Read the full article on BBC News by clicking here
David Bird from Solicitor’s Journal reviews the latest developments in tax and estate planning, including negligible value claims for CGT, inheritance tax and agricultural property relief.
David suggests that “Although the expected increase in CGT rates did not materialise, it is safe to assume that the rate of CGT will not remain at 18 per cent for much longer and the second Budget of 2010 will probably increase the rate (and vindicate the advice and legal work which was carried out earlier in the year).”
If you are thinking of disposing of an asset, do it while CGT is still at 18%
This week the STEP Journal give their analysis of tax implications under the new coalition government.
Read the full article here or see the excerpt below
“Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were obliged to drop some of their campaign promises when agreeing to form a coalition government on Tuesday.
Tory plans to raise the inheritance tax nil rate band to GBP1 million have been shelved for the duration of this parliament. The LibDem proposal for a “mansion tax” on houses worth more than GBP2 million has been dropped, probably for ever.
However the most significant news is that the new chancellor, George Osborne, will soon present an emergency Budget raising capital gains tax rates to levels “similar or close to those applied to income” – that is, from 18 per cent to 40 per cent, in line with the Liberal Democrats’ election manifesto.
The new rate will, however, only apply to non-business assets, and there are to be “generous exemptions for entrepreneurial business activities”. This means shares, second homes and buy-to-let property will be the main targets of the tax.
Newspapers, including the Financial Times, are predicting heavy selling of these assets before the new rate comes into force. It is not yet clear whether the change will be implemented immediately or even retrospectively.
“The hope is that any change will not be before 2010/11 to allow sensible business and tax decisions to be made in good time”, said Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax at accountants Grant Thornton.
Another ominous passage in the coalition’s joint policy statement promises that “all efforts will be made to tackle tax avoidance, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals.
“This could include a campaign proposal by Vince Cable (now a minister) for a general anti-avoidance provision for corporation tax.
Before the election the party also advocated closing “loopholes” such as preventing the avoidance of stamp duty land tax by transferring property into offshore trusts, restricting non-dom status to a maximum of seven years, and stopping business owners paying themselves in dividends taxed at 18 per cent.
The Tories’ proposal for limited transferability of personal tax allowance between spouses has not been dropped, but Liberal Democrat MPs will be allowed to abstain on budget resolutions dealing with it.
The emergency budget will appear before the end of June, aided by an independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
A full spending review will be held during the summer, reporting in autumn. This will follow a “fully consultative process involving all tiers of government and the private sector”, says the new government.”
Source
In support of Lewis-Manning Hospice, local solicitors are donating their time to prepare standard wills free of charge in return for a donation to the hospice. Any sum is welcome, but suggested minimum donations are £75 for a single will and £110 for a pair of mirror wills. If your will is not standard, the solicitor will inform you and agree a fee before going ahead. There is no obligation to leave a gift to Lewis-Manning in your will but the hospice is deeply grateful to all the people who support them in this way.
‘Make a Will Week’ falls in June, which is National Hospice Awareness Month – a very important time in the hospice calendar when, as well as trying to raise much needed funds, activities are focussed on raising the profile of hospices and the vital role they play in the provision of palliative care services within the local community.
If you are interested in having your will drawn up or updated during ‘Make a Will Week’, please contact Gillian to make an appointment.
Opened in 1992, Lewis-Manning Hospice is Poole’s local voluntary hospice for adults providing the highest standard of specialist palliative nursing care completely FREE of charge to over 650 local people living with cancer and other life threatening and life limiting illnesses. After the contracted contribution from the NHS Bournemouth and Poole, the monthly running costs of the hospice exceed £50,000, for which the hospice relies on the support of the local community and fundraising initiatives.
For further information, please contact Stephanie Thorne on 01202 701000, email legacies@lewis-manning.co.uk or visit www.lewis-manning.co.uk / www.timetocareappeal
STEP reports that the government has agreed to remove from the Finance Bill its proposed abolition of tax relief on holiday lettings. But the measure will be revived after the election if a Labour government is returned
Read the full article at the STEP Journal or read the extract below.
The Conservatives estimate that the change would affect more than 120,000 businesses, costing the owners an average of GBP4,000 each a year. It would raise GBP25 million in 2011/12 and GBP15 million in 2012/13.
But a general election has now been called and the Finance Bill has to be forced through within two days. This gave opposition politicians the chance to demand concessions from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne. They chose three – the holiday lettings tax, the “cider tax” and the “broadband tax”.
According to The Times, both George Osborne (Conservative shadow Chancellor) and Jeremy Browne (Liberal Democrat Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury) claimed credit for the government’s retreat.
Both opposition parties have attacked the measure in the Commons, agreeing with many business associations that it could damage the British tourism industry.
The abolition of holiday let relief was originally triggered by a European Commission ruling that the UK government could not apply it only to homes in Britain; it had to apply to homes anywhere in Europe, or none at all.
The government decided to accommodate this by making the relief apply to all homes during 2008-10, and then abolishing it altogether from April 2010.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said that, if the measure doesn’t go ahead, the Treasury will have to pay tax relief to everyone with a holiday home within the EU.
So owners of holiday lets in European Union member states now have an extra window of opportunity to claim tax relief. The election result will determine how long the window remains open.”