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Under Inheritance Tax (IHT) law, certain types of trust have a ten-yearly charge to IHT on the value of the trust assets. The legislation, which imposes IHT of 6 per cent on the 'relevant property' in the trust settlement, was introduced in 2006 and applied from 2008, so the first periodic charges are now in point. When a wealthy family created two trusts in 2000 and 2004 and settled more than £18 million in them, the relevant legislation had not been passed. The current trustees of the trust were appointed...

People who seek advantage by going beyond the bounds of planning permission they are given can expect to be taught a very expensive lesson by the courts. However, the law does guarantee the right of a person to have a planning application considered, as was illustrated by a recent case involving the submission of a revised planning application after a flagrant breach of the terms of an earlier application. The council had granted planning permission for a property that was to be used for storing vehicles, and a building was...

When a couple divorced in 2014, the ex-husband was ordered to pay his ex-wife periodical payments of £120,000 per year after he was found to have used a variety of stratagems to make himself appear worse off than he really was. A mere three months later, he began legal proceedings for an order to reduce the amount of the payments. The dispute wound on and on and by the time it reached court in 2017, the total estimated legal costs for the ex-husband and ex-wife ran to hundreds of thousands...

A solicitor's primary duty when drafting a will is to follow faithfully their client's instructions after giving accurate and level-headed advice. In a professional negligence case triggered by the early death of a business tycoon's wife, the High Court ruled that that is exactly what a law firm did. The case does, however, make the point strongly that wills should always be kept under review to ensure they are still appropriate if circumstances change. The woman was ten years younger than her husband and, until she was diagnosed with cancer,...