Smith & Williamson win Best HNW team at 2010 Taxation Awards

Top 10 accountancy firm Smith & Williamson have won the Best High Net Worth Tax Team award at the 2010 Taxation Awards dinner.

Full details at: http://www.smith.williamson.co.uk/news/3322-smith-williamson-wins-again-at-taxation-awards

IMF proposes two big new bank taxes to fund bail-outs

The BBC has learned that financial institutions and banks face paying two new taxes in an attempt to make them more accountable for the costs of future financial and economic rescue packages. The plan is more radical than initially anticipated and includes an initial flat-rate levy, plus an additional tax on profits and pay. The finance ministers of the G20 nations will be discussing the proposals this weekend. The chancellor Alistair Darling said the IMF's proposals were "important" and should be welcomed.

For the full story visit:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8633455.stm

LG Partners establish new HNW boutique

Four former partners from London law firm LG have established a Mayfair-based boutique law firm Berkeley Law. The firm which has 14 lawyers, includes former LG partners Nick Rucker, Alexandra Ruffel, Glen Hurstfield and Tim Thornton-Jones. Their aim is to build a niche wealth advisory practice advising UK and international ultra high net worth individuals.

No escape for tax exiles?

The Court of Appeal has upheld the right of HM Revenue & Customs to tax a businessman, Robert Gaines-Cooper, who has lived in the Seychelles since 1976. The judges said that he had never been exempt from UK taxes as a non-resident citizen and now should pay a tax bill of £30m relating to the years from 1993-20004. Although he had abided by the rules to spend fewer than 91 days here, he had still not cut his ties with the UK.

Thousands of wealthy UK citizens living abroad as tax exiles may now find they have to pay UK taxes after all.

A key feature of the Revenue's old guidance on whether someone was resident in the UK for tax purposes - known as IR20 - was whether they spent, on average, fewer than 91 days here each year.

"If you read the old guidance at face value, as most of us did, and you spent less than 91 days here, you would have been treated as a tax exile," said Mike Warburton of accountants Grant Thornton, who was an expert witness in the case.

However, the three Appeal Court judges ruled that it had always been the case that any would-be tax exile, first had to show they had really left the country.

Any continuing connections would mean that he had not actually cut his ties with the UK and would thus not be able to avoid UK taxes.

The 91-day rule, they said, did not in fact establish non-residency, and was "important only to establish whether non-resident status, once acquired, has been lost".

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8519803.stm

HMRC increasingly target HNWIs

City law firm McGrigors has undertaken research showing that HMRC collected £373 million from investigations into wealthy taxpayers in the last financial year, a 21 per cent rise on the previous year and a 360 per cent increase over five years. HMRC established a specialist HNW unit in April 2009 to focus specifically in the field.

This news comes on the back of a failed attempt by UK-born businessman Robert Gaines-Cooper, to win a judicial review of a major dispute with the UK tax authorities. HMRC refused to accept he had really left the country when he moved to the Seychelles in 1976. The case further illustrates the risks run by tax exiles who nevertheless keep some links with their home nation.