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Media personalities, IT professionals and others often obtain perfectly legitimate tax advantages by providing their services as independent contractors via their own private companies. As one case showed, however, the tax authorities are making ever-increasing use of their power to look behind the corporate veil to discern the reality of working relationships. The case concerned a TV presenter whose services were provided to a broadcaster by a company of which he was the majority shareholder. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) took the view that, if the company were taken out...

Your assets are your own and, when making your will, you have complete freedom to leave them to whomever you choose. As a case concerning a business tycoon's £100 million estate showed, however, a will signed without the testator having knowledge and approval of its contents is not worth the paper it is written on. The businessman's final will bequeathed 80 per cent of his residuary estate to his youngest daughter. One of his sons and two of his grandchildren, who were major beneficiaries under an earlier will, were all...

Children may not have the capacity to make important decisions for themselves, but that does not mean that family judges ignore their wishes and feelings. In a highly unusual case on point, a 17-year-old girl was granted her adamant wish to be adopted by her stepmother. Following her parents' difficult separation, the girl spent most of her early years living with her birth mother. Over the past 10 years, however, she had steadily moved into her father and stepmother's domain. She vehemently supported her stepmother's application to adopt her, a...

Landlords who rent out houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) without a required licence are exposed to the double whammy of criminal prosecution and the prospect of having to repay rent to their tenants. As an unusual Upper Tribunal (UT) ruling showed, however, there is such a thing as a reasonable excuse. The case concerned an urban flat that was let to multiple tenants and was in a designated area where HMO licences were required. The couple who owned it had held such a licence. However, following its expiry, almost a...