Reading HMRC’s on-going consultation ‘Simplifying Charges on Trusts’ does not give much hope for simplification. Of the key proposals, ignoring previous lifetime transfers and non-relevant property in relation to trust exits and ten year charges, is clearly attractive. However, while the idea of splitting the nil rate band between every trust a settlor creates -even… Read More On HMRC’s Charges on Trusts consultation
For the press, the most eye-catching item on the agenda at the recent G-20 Finance Ministers Summit in St Petersburg was the (still rather vague) proposal to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance by tackling base erosion and profit shifting. For many STEP members, however, perhaps the most important item was the (very firm) instruction… Read More G-20 Summit – global automatic tax information exchange by 2014?
The EU Commission held a full day meeting with experts to explain its plans for developing full multilateral automatic exchange of tax information across the EU. Of, course the EU already has the Savings Tax Directive, but that only covers interest income, and plans to extend it have long been held up by objections from… Read More The European FATCA
Keeping abreast of the ever-changing tax rules is a challenging pastime for all professionals. My time spent on Committees for STEP has been invaluable, as I get to mix with professionals who cover all walks of the trust and estate practitioner fields and learn first hand about the latest issues that will, or might, affect… Read More I heard it through the grapevine…
For STEP members I suspect the G-8 meeting has confirmed a couple of things, but left others open to question. The final communique confirms that we are moving from tax information exchange on request to automatic tax information exchange as the international standard. Moreover the OECD paper released for the G8 summit suggests strongly that… Read More G-8 Wash-up
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