In Fowler v HMRC [2020] UKSC 22, the Supreme Court determined that a statutory fiction created by a deeming provision of UK tax law did not affect how the terms of a bilateral tax treaty should be applied. In particular, the Supreme Court held that although the UK deeming provision in question applied to treat … Read more
Our survey shows that trust companies consider cyber attack to be one of the greatest challenges they face. The results show that trustees consider phishing, impersonation and malware to be the main cyber security risks they face. Some 33% of respondents said they saw phishing as the main risk whilst 22% identified impersonation as a … Read more
Welcome to Herbert Smith Freehills’ new monthly private wealth industry updates in Asia. Every month we survey ten Asian jurisdictions for legal developments concerning trust and estate planning which are of interest to the private wealth industry, and provide a succinct summary in a table format. The jurisdictions covered in the update are Hong Kong, … Read more
We asked trust companies questions about the most significant risk and compliance issues they face. The respondents identified tax compliance issues as the fourth most significant challenge. The survey mapped which specific tax compliance issues trust companies struggled with the most. A fairly even share of the vote for most pressing issue (15-17%) was taken … Read more
On 8 April 2020, the High Court of New Zealand issued a judgment concluding that cryptocurrencies are a species of intangible personal property capable of being the subject matter of a trust. The judgment summarises recent case law from a number of jurisdictions on the proprietary status of cryptoassets and refers to the UK Jurisdiction … Read more
In Henkes v HMRC [2020] UKFTT 7645 (“Henkes”), the First-tier (Tax) Tribunal (“the Tribunal”) held that (a) it could (and would) determine the taxpayer’s domicile status when determining an application for the closure of a domicile enquiry and (b) its determination of that issue would be binding in any substantive appeal against a subsequent tax … Read more
As part of our recent trust companies survey, we asked the participating trust companies what data privacy issues pose the greatest challenges to their business. Read more
As part of our recent trust companies survey, we asked the participating trust companies what risk and compliance issues pose the greatest challenges to their business. Reputational risk as a business challenge As we reported in our previous publication on the results of the survey, the respondents identified beneficiary disputes as the least pressing issue. … Read more
In summary A recent Federal Court decision has put a major stumbling block in the path of non-resident beneficiaries of Australian discretionary trusts. The ongoing use of discretionary trusts for asset protection, flexibility and succession planning is now in jeopardy because of the unnecessary tax cost they create. In detail It has long been a … Read more
