Succession in Scotland

Our content on Scottish Private Client law for Scottish practitioners aims to provide an essential resources for Scottish practitioners, as well as practitioners in England and Wales with clients who need advice on cross-border issues.

Succession law in Scotland is a mixture of statutory and common law, the principal statute being the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964 (S(S)A 1964). S(S)A 1964 came into force on 10 September 1964 and regulates succession to the estates of persons dying on or after that date. Among other things S(S)A 1964 deals with the rules of intestacy and fixed rights of inheritance known as ‘prior rights’ and ‘legal rights’. S(S)A 1964 expressly preserves the pre-existing law of intestate succession insofar as it is not inconsistent with the provisions of

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All in? Court confirms when a settlement is 'made' for the purposes of excluded property (Accuro Trust (Switzerland) SA v The Commissioners for HMRC)

Private Client analysis: This case considered the meaning of 'relevant property' under the settlements regime of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) and, in particular, the time at which this definition is to be tested. The question arose as to whether the trustees of an offshore trust established by a non-UK domiciled settlor were subject to the UK settlements regime in respect of property added to the trust after the settlor became deemed domiciled in the UK, or whether they were exempt from such charges as the trust consisted solely of excluded property. The First-tier Tribunal (FTT) held that whether trust property is excluded property is based on the status of the trust at the time that it was established, not at the time that the property in question was added to the settlement. As a result, the trust in this case did consist solely of excluded property and no inheritance tax (IHT) charges arose as a result of either the ten-year anniversary or capital distributions. The FTT was also asked to consider whether their jurisdiction was appellate, or supervisory only. The FTT held that, while their jurisdiction was supervisory, the questions raised by the trustees were relevant in establishing whether HMRC had acted reasonably and that the outcome (ie that the paid IHT should be refunded and that no further IHT was due) would be the same in either case. Written by Katherine Willmott, senior associate solicitor at Foot Anstey LLP.

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