Business relief on lifetime transfers Business property relief (BPR) applies to reduce the value transferred by a transfer of value. For further information on BPR, see Practice Note: IHT—business property relief. There are restrictions on business relief on lifetime transfers made after 17 March 1986. The restrictions take the form of a clawback of business relief that was available as at the time of the lifetime transfer if further conditions relating to events subsequent to the transfer are not also met. Lifetime transfers that are potentially exempt and lifetime transfers that are

HMRC will only accept that income is shared between joint owners of property in specified proportions if those proportions reflect the beneficial ownership. As well as providing evidence of the underlying beneficial ownership, the legal owners would also need to file Form 17 with HMRC. See HMRC manual: TSEM9851 Form 17 Rule—Evidence. It sounds from this Q&A that the declaration of trust which was executed by the deceased (while living) and their spouse did not change the beneficial entitlement to the future sale proceeds of the property, but only contained an agreement that the income

Private Client analysis: The deceased, who was a convicted paedophile, died leaving an estate worth in excess of £4.5m. It was apparent to the executors that he may have committed sexual abuse against minors in the UK and Europe, and that the victims might have personal injury claims that survived against the estate and would, if made out, categorise them as creditors of the estate. However, the executors did not know the identities or locations of any of the victims. In these circumstances, the question facing the executors was: what should they do? They applied to the court for directions. Chief Master Marsh ruled that that was ‘the only safe course of action’ and made a number of directions with a view to trying to identify and locate unascertained victims and potential creditors. Written by Mark Cunningham QC of Maitland Chambers, who acted for the executors in this case, as well as in National Westminster Bank plc v Lucas (Savile).

We have assumed that the deceased and the surviving partner were not married or registered civil partners. We also assume that the surviving partner's estate would suffer an inheritance tax liability, regardless of the inheritance from the first death. A deed of variation can be effected by the personal representatives of a legatee who survives the deceased but

This Q&A assumes that the child in question is an adult and also, for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes, that the life tenant holds a qualifying interest in possession under the trust. Life interest trusts A life interest trust gives the life tenant an interest in trust assets for their lifetime, which is usually the entitlement to receive the income from the assets or to live in a property. Upon that beneficiary’s death, the assets pass to one or more remaindermen. For tax purposes, the life tenant has an interest in possession, namely ‘a present right of present enjoyment in the net income of the Trust property without

We have assumed that the property in which the reservation subsists at death is not settled property. The effect of the gift with reservation of benefit (GWROB) rules in section 102 of the Finance Act 1986 (FA 1986) applying is set out in FA 1986, s 102(3) which says that: ‘If, immediately before the death of the donor, there is any property which, in relation to him, is property subject to a reservation then, to the extent that the property would not, apart from this section, form part

Execution of a deed To execute a deed in counterpart, the parties must sign identical copies of the document and exchange them with each other. Combined, these counterparts are treated as a single document which takes effect as a deed. In this scenario, one party has made an error in executing its counterpart and as a result the deed is invalid. How this situation can be dealt with depends on the context of the scenario and the relationship between the parties. If the parties are in agreement that the second document is the final agreed version and a mistake has been made, it may be possible to rectify the situation by re-executing the deed. Re-execution The most straightforward solution is for the parties to the agreement to simply

Easements—generally An easement is an incorporeal right enjoyed by the owner of a legal estate (dominant tenement) over land in the ownership of another person (servient tenement) that binds successors in title. Easements are usually positive, giving the dominant owner the right to enter or use the servient land in some way (eg a right of way). However, they can be negative preventing something being done on the servient land and so giving the dominant owner the right to receive something from the servient land (eg a right to light). An easement has four essential characteristics: • there must be a dominant and a servient tenement • the easement must accommodate

The official search procedure at HM Land Registry allows for the updating of the details of an office copy entry of the register by checking up-to-date entries in the register of title, getting details of pending applications or priority official searches, and ensuring insofar as possible that no adverse entries are made in the register before a protectable disposition is completed by registration. For more information, see HM Land Registry Practice Guide 12. Section 72 of the Land Registration Act 2002 and the Land Registration Rules 2003 (LRR 2003), SI 2003/1417, r 131 allow a priority search only in respect of

If the existing deed is not valid and effective as it stands, then revocation or variation of the deed will not apply. Validity is a question of both form and content. If the deed is not valid, then a 'new' deed which complies with section 142 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) and section 62(6) of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (TCGA 1992) could be executed by the parties. For information on deeds and their valid

A ‘deed of variation’ is the expression normally used for a deed which varies the terms of a deceased person’s Will and which often includes a statement that the provisions of section 142 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 are to apply to it. Such a deed normally ‘re-directs’ an outright disposition occurring in favour of an individual on death. The ‘re-direction’ can be to a different individual or into trust. Unless a power of revocation has been reserved (which is rare) a gift into trust is an outright disposition of the settlor’s interest in the property given away. Notwithstanding the gift is made into trust by means of a deed of variation, the law generally pertaining to gifts will apply. Accordingly, unless the deed was incorrectly drafted, and did not reflect the settlor’s intentions (in which case rectification may be available)

EU law analysis: On 17 December 2024, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted Opinion 28/2024 on certain data protection aspects related to the processing of personal data in the context of AI models (the Opinion). In this News Analysis Alex Jameson of Bird & Bird considers the background to the Opinion and the key takeaways.