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Taxpayers are personally responsible for filing their tax returns on time, and failing to do so can lead to stiff financial penalties. However, in one case, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) ruled that a self-employed website developer whose accountants lost all of his data following a computer hacking incident had a reasonable excuse for missing the deadline. The man had incurred penalties totalling £3,200 for failing to file two tax returns on time. He had ceased trading as a self-employed person and had no idea that the penalties had been imposed...

Money in a bank account represents the debt due from the bank to the account holder and is not 'property' in the eyes of the law. The Court of Appeal made that point in quashing the convictions of a woman who was accused of abusing her position as a senior employee of a housing charity to steal almost £50,000. The woman was alleged to have put in falsely inflated claims for overtime and other payments and was jailed for 16 months after a jury convicted her of six counts of...

When a will is made late in life which materially changes how an estate is to be distributed (especially when the new will favours one of a number of children), a dispute following the death is almost inevitable. So it was when an 85-year-old woman made a new will which left her house to the youngest of her three children. The value of the house was approximately £350,000. It was effectively the only asset in her estate and an earlier will (made when she was 80) had divided her estate...

Family judges will approach pre-nuptial agreements with greater respect following a landmark Court of Appeal ruling in a 'big money' divorce case. The Court agreed with Lord Phillips' opinion in Radmacher v Granatino that failing to honour such agreements, if reasonable and freely entered into, on the basis that the Court knows best would be both 'paternalistic' and 'patronising'. The case concerned a middle-aged former couple who had been married for over 20 years and had three adult children. Their matrimonial assets were valued at £273 million. Much of that...