STEP’s Global Congress, coming up in Amsterdam this summer, will be looking into a number of important and controversial issues, not least in the panel session I’m chairing on the second day. Joining me will be the Rt Hon Clare Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Jeremy Carver CBE of Transparency International and… Read More Are all countries ready for automatic information exchange?
Significant tax changes are on the way for anyone buying a second home or a buy-to-let property in England & Wales. The Scottish and Northern Irish Governments have also unanimously backed the changes, which will come into effect from 1 April 2016. Robert Jamieson TEP explained the new changes in a STEP seminar for tax… Read More UK buy-to-let tax and SDLT changes
Next week will be a busy week at STEP in helping shape the future strategy of the Society. First of all the Board, working closely with STEP staff, will be having a two day planning session here at London headquarters looking at the strategic challenges facing the Society and its members and how best STEP should position… Read More Strategy at STEP
STEP’s Professional Standards Committee recently approved some revisions to the STEP Code for Will Preparation in England & Wales, which applies to all STEP members drafting wills in England & Wales. Please find below a Q&A, which addresses the revisions and answers some common queries. If you have any questions about the Code please contact… Read More STEP Will Code revision published
The Office of the Public Guardian in England and Wales published a practice note on 15 February 2016 (below) clarifying how solicitor deputies should manage deputyship funds. Whilst the information is widely understood as best practice, it is a helpful reminder regarding the administration and management of deputyship accounts. The law states that all deputies… Read More The OPG: How solicitor deputies should manage deputyship accounts
International standards can be difficult to implement, requiring change and compromise. Once implemented, however, they ought to make life much easier for everyone. Indeed ideally they should become so universal that we barely notice them. A good example is Bluetooth, the international standard for how electronic devices talk to each other, which is now so… Read More When is an international standard not a standard?
Jan Wright, of STEP’s UK Practice Committee, and I attended the HM Revenue & Customs Annual Stakeholder Conference today. We heard from Financial Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke MP, that through policy changes and an investment of £800 million, the government was striving hard to find ways to incentivise tax compliance and make the… Read More The road to compliance
At one of the regular meetings we had with HMRC, there was a short presentation from the Offshore Evasion strategy team. They are keen to get the message out to taxpayers that automatic exchange of information in the shape of the Common Reporting Standard will be coming in relatively soon, with the first exchange of… Read More Informing clients of CRS reporting
Reports suggest that late last night the EU Parliament and Member States finally reached an agreement on the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The agreement will see a mandatory requirement for registration of beneficial owners for corporates, but is less than clear on the issue of public access to such a register, allowing access to be… Read More The 4th AML Directive Agreement – a pragmatic solution
This article originally appeared at ACAMS moneylaundering.com On the eve of key behind-the-scenes talks on the Fourth European Union Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the rift over proposals for the public register of trusts has widened between the United Kingdom and Europe. Officials from the European Parliament, Commission and Council are set to meet Tuesday to discuss… Read More Battle Over Exempting Trusts From Public Registry Continues Between EU and UK
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