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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are big battalions by anyone's standards, but their word is not law and, with expert legal assistance, they can sometimes be proved wrong. In one case, a couple succeeded in overturning six-figure Capital Gains Tax (CGT) demands raised against them following the sale of their home to a developer. The couple reluctantly sold their substantial home when faced with the prospect of new houses being built all around them. On the basis that the property was their principal private residence (PPR) and thus exempt from...

Obtaining authorisation for construction projects can be extremely demanding, but a combination of persistence and the right legal advice will often win the day. In a case on point, a householder whose hopes of building a garden room were time and again thwarted by planners was finally granted his wish by the High Court. The householder twice applied to his local authority for a certificate confirming that his proposed development was automatically permitted under the terms of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 (GPDO) and that...

HM Revenue and Customs have reported a decline in the number of trusts and estates in the UK for the fifth year in a row. Between 2018 and 2019, the total number of trusts and estates in the UK fell by 2 per cent to 151,000. The wealth management vehicles have been in steady decline, with numbers decreasing by 32 per cent over the past 14 years. The total tax bill on trusts and estates in 2018/19 was £1.43 billion, with an equal split between Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax....

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic it has become even more popular to seek resolution of financial issues arising from divorce via private arbitration rather than formal court proceedings – but to what extent are arbitration awards binding and enforceable? The Court of Appeal confronted that issue in a guideline case. A divorcing couple who, due to the pressure on judicial time, faced a potentially long delay in receiving a court hearing instead took the quicker route of submitting their financial differences to arbitration. That procedure had the added advantage of being...