HMRC’s Trusts and Estates team met with the Agents Advisory Group and Capital Taxes Liaison Group in May and provided the following updates: Operational update Despite the unique challenges presented by the current COVID-19 situation, inheritance tax and trusts operational areas are currently meeting all key targets and processing post and new accounts within published… Read More Update from HMRC’s Trusts and Estates team
Following a query raised on the Trusts Discussion Forum, STEP’s UK Technical Committee has been considering the capital gains tax consequences of a deed of variation of a will in circumstances where the asset which is the subject of the variation has already been disposed of by the original beneficiary. The specific issue raised was… Read More Update on HMRC’s Capital Gains Tax Manual
It has come to STEP’s attention that in HMRC’s GOV.UK guidance on how to register a trust, the guidance about which beneficiaries need to be registered on the Trust Registration Service (TRS) differed in certain important respects from the HMRC guidance that was published on 22 November 2017. For example, the GOV.UK guidance said: ‘When… Read More Trust Registration Service: clarification on reporting requirements
Update 21 November: HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) has announced this week that all legal professionals’ probate calls have been centralised and are now dealt with by the Birmingham Courts and Tribunals Service Centre (CTSC). You will no longer be required to contact a local registry if you need an update on your client’s… Read More EW probate delays: September update
STEP met HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) this week, together with The Law Society and Solicitors for the Elderly, to obtain an update on the delays and disruption to the Probate Service in England and Wales. HMCTS gave us the following update on work undertaken since our last meeting on 14 May: It has… Read More EW probate delays and disruption: an update
HMRC has identified the most common errors made by financial institutions (FIs) when filing their Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) returns, which include Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reportable information. 1. The FI misunderstands what constitutes an undocumented account FIs are wrongly reporting accounts as ‘undocumented’ on the basis… Read More HMRC’s five traps to avoid with CRS/FATCA reporting
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has found that HMRC is failing to guarantee fairness for taxpayers by failing to differentiate between users of sophisticated tax avoidance schemes and ordinary citizens who break the law through uninformed or naive actions. In its report, The Powers of HMRC: Treating Taxpayers Fairly (PDF), the committee found… Read More House of Lords report criticises HMRC’s treatment of taxpayers
The UK Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published its first report of its review into inheritance tax (IHT). The report, in which STEP is widely quoted, finds that the process for completing IHT forms is too complex and old fashioned, and that too many people are having to fill them in unnecessarily. The OTS… Read More OTS report supports STEP’s calls for simplification
On 7 November, the UK government launched its review into the taxation of trusts, almost a year after announcing it in the 2017 Autumn Budget. The consultation, which will run until 30 January 2019, focuses on the principles of transparency, fairness and neutrality, and simplicity. The government’s stated aim is to ensure that the many… Read More UK trust taxation under review
STEP’s Isle of Man branch has flagged potential issues raised by the UK Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/692) (the Regulations) which give effect to the requirement of the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive to have a central register of trusts, and reporting obligations on trustees.… Read More Do UK money laundering regs extend to trusts in other jurisdictions?
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