Business Property Relief (BPR) is an exemption from inheritance tax contained within the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) (IHTA 1984, s 104 et seq) which gives up to 100% relief in respect of a business or interest in a business, together with any shares in any unquoted company. Relief of 50% is available in certain specified other circumstances. It is therefore a potentially powerful tool for inheritance planning. See Practice Note: IHT—business property relief. To qualify for BPR, the business must have been owned for at least two years; must not be subject to a binding contract for sale (though an option to purchase does not affect the relief); and the business must not be for the purpose of buying and selling stocks and shares, dealing in land or buildings

Our Practice Note: Private company share buybacks—initial considerations includes the following paragraphs on this topic: 'A limited company may purchase its own shares, including any redeemable shares, subject to CA 2006, Pt 18 and any prohibition or restriction in the company’s articles of association

If a company is proposing to acquire its own shares, it is prudent to consider its articles of association and any shareholders’ agreement that is in place, to ensure that they do not restrict or prohibit the acquisition. In particular, they should be checked for any pre-emption rights or similar provisions

One of the requirements in order for a company to qualify to grant enterprise management incentives (EMI) options is that the company must have fewer than 250 full-time equivalent employees on the date on which the options are granted (or, in the case of a parent company, it must have less than 250 full-time equivalent employees including those of all of its qualifying subsidiaries). For these purposes, the number of full-time equivalent employees of a company is calculated by taking the full number of employees of the company and, for each employee

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (LRHUDA 1993) gives certain tenants the right to 'extend' the term of their lease by the grant of a new lease for an additional term of 90 years. The process of seeking a new lease is triggered by the tenant serving notice under LRHUDA 1993, s 42. Tenants frequently wish to assign a lease during the claim process. The notice must be assigned to the purchaser together with the lease. By LRHUDA 1993, s 43(3) '...if the tenant's lease is assigned without the benefit of the notice, the notice shall accordingly be deemed to

The Law Society’s guidance on conditional fee agreements (CFAs) states that a contract entered into with a minor is not binding unless it is for ‘necessaries’. Arguably, legal services could fall into that bracket. Beneficial contracts of service can be deemed to fall within the category of ‘necessaries’, enabling minors to pursue employment, for example. If it is correct that legal services can fall into the category of ‘necessaries’, then a CFA entered into with a minor in their name through their litigation friend (signing on behalf of the minor) would bind the minor once

Section 23(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) contains the principal power to make spousal periodical payments orders on divorce—the section provides that: ‘on granting a decree of divorce, a decree of nullity of marriage or a decree of judicial separation or at any time thereafter…the court can make one or more of the following orders [a) a periodical payments order]’. As the court can make ‘one or more’ spousal periodical payments orders, to achieve a valid ‘clean break’ (in the sense

The drafting of a consent order requires knowledge not just of family law and procedure, but of trusts, land law and potentially many other areas of law. In addition, orders need to be drafted very carefully to ensure that they accord with the agreement reached between the parties, and do not have unintended consequences. It is common in cases where there are limited resources for the court to make what is known as a Mesher order, after the eponymous case (Mesher v Mesher and Hall). Such an order allows one spouse, usually the one with primary responsibility

Many construction contracts will contain express clauses which allow either the contractor or the employer to terminate on the happening of a specific event or circumstance. Common examples of such clauses include for non-payment, assigning without consent, suspension without cause or abandonment of the works. The standard form contracts also generally deal with events in which either party can terminate—for example force majeure clauses and acts of government which directly affect the execution of the works (both of key relevance in the current climate). Where the contract in question does not provide for termination, or the event in question is outside of the scope of those terms, the common law may be able to assist through the doctrine of repudiatory breach of contract, entitling the innocent party to treat the contract as being at an end. Where a contract is terminated either by way of an express provision or by way

The scope of a contractual time bar provision will in all cases depend upon its terms. However, it is unlikely that a typical time bar clause in a construction contract, which provides for the expiry of the right to raise an action for breach of contract after a specified period, would prevent the recovery of contributions under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 (CL(C)A 1978). Rights to contribution: a recap Under CL(C)A 1978, where a defendant (‘D1’) is liable to a claimant (‘C’) for damage,

We have assumed that the contract in question is subject to the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. In construction contracts, the employer will typically retain an agreed percentage from interim payments due to the contractor as security for the future performance of its obligations under the building contract—this is known as the retention. The Court of Appeal in Relicpride Building Co Ltd v Cordara held that the purpose of the retention was to act as a security by ensuring that the employer had a sum available from which to indemnify itself in respect of any loss or damage that it might suffer through a failure by the contractor to rectify any outstanding defective items during any relevant defect rectification period. The employer was obliged to give the contractor a reasonable opportunity to fulfil its outstanding obligations in respect of defective works, however,

In answering this Q&A we have limited our research to cover online purchases by consumers of bespoke items. For the purposes of this Q&A we have assumed that this question relates to online purchases by consumers of bespoke goods. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA 2015) implies certain terms into any contract for the sale of goods, including those made with consumers. Under the CRA 2015: • goods must correspond with their description (CRA 2015, s 11) • goods must be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose (CRA 2015 ss 9 and 10) • the transferor of goods must have the right to transfer title in them (CRA 2015, s 8) • where goods are transferred by reference to a sample, that they must correspond with the sample Quality is judged by the following factors (CRA 2015, s 9(3)): • fitness for all the purposes for