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Managing Trusts & Tax

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How we can help

Managing trusts and navigating an increasingly complex tax system can be time consuming and daunting.

Generations of families and businesses have relied on our expert team of specialists to relieve them of the burden of trust management and tax compliance.

Our Trust & Tax Management practice can help you to protect your assets and pass on your wealth to the next generation tax efficiently, and in the way that best suits your circumstances.

The tax compliance and trust management team looks after the accounting, taxation and administration aspects of running different kinds of trusts, charities and other structures, including family investment companies.

We provide a personal tax advisory and compliance service across Kent, the South East and nationally, assisting trustees, beneficiaries and other individuals with their income, property and capital gains tax needs.

Our team also works to manage inheritance tax reporting for periodic charges, exits and other events, and to support executors in the preparation of estate accounts and tax returns for estates.

Key clients include:

  • People creating trusts (settlors), charities and family investment companies
  • Trustees and executors
  • Family offices
  • Beneficiaries and other individuals with private wealth
  • Business owners
  • Property owners and landlords (including non-resident landlords)
  • Non-UK resident and non-UK domiciled individuals with reporting requirements in the UK.

As part of a full service law firm, we can call on expertise from our Wills, Estate & Tax Planning, Probate, Will, Trust & Estate Disputes and Family teams as needed.

Personal tax compliance

Expert support with your tax compliance needs and advice on changes and opportunities.

Tax compliance is becoming increasingly challenging and complex, with an ongoing move towards greater digitalisation and transparency.

Having access to professional, expert support with tax compliance can help save you time, money and offer peace of mind that your affairs are in order and up to date with the latest legislation.

Our experienced team of specialists includes chartered tax advisers, chartered accountants and affiliates of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP). We provide personal tax advice across Kent, the South East and nationally.

We support high net worth families, business owners, residential and commercial landlords and non-domiciled individuals with a wide range of tax compliance including:

  • Tax returns and compliance
    Managing your personal tax affairs, or those of a trust, and dealing with HMRC on your behalf, including preparing your self-assessment return and any separate Capital Gains Tax on UK property return you need to make following the sale of a property. We will work with you to review your affairs and assist you in claiming any deductions or allowances to which you may be entitled and ensuring all payments are made on time. We also assist Executors with tax obligations of the deceased and their estates
  • Tax advice
    Practical advice on personal tax situations. Identification of potential tax saving opportunities through appropriate use of allowances and reliefs and the use of simple planning may save considerable amounts of tax
  • Income tax
    Providing assistance on a range of income tax issues from the implications of being self-employed and preparing accounts, to assisting UK and non-resident landlords in the declaration of rental income
  • Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
    Calculating the CGT due when you dispose of capital assets such as land, buildings, shares and businesses, and ensuring appropriate reliefs are claimed. We also work alongside our Tax Planning colleagues to help defer and potentially reduce CGT
  • Inheritance Tax (IHT)
    Preparation of Inheritance tax forms for lifetime and other events, such as on trust anniversaries and funds exiting a trust. We also work with our Wills, Estate & Tax Planning team to help identify opportunities for tax and estate planning and take action to potentially save tax for you and your family
  • International and non-UK domicile
    Preparing returns for non-UK resident individuals, UK resident but non-domiciled tax payers or individuals with income sources outside of the UK, including claiming foreign tax credit relief under double taxation agreements. We have extensive experience helping individuals file tax returns to report leaving or returning to the UK, and helping non-UK domiciled individuals claiming the remittance basis to protected their assets and income abroad
  • Owning property
    We provide comprehensive tax advice and support in relation to property ownership. This includes those buying or selling their home or buy to let property in the UK. We work closely with second home owners in the UK reporting or making elections on their property, and we work internationally with residential and commercial landlords to report in the UK and claim foreign tax credit relief where available.

Technically strong, responsive, friendly, approachable and personable.

Trust management & tax compliance

Expert trust management can help ensure wealth is preserved for the next generation.

It is human nature to want to protect and pass on your wealth. Trusts are a useful structure to do this, but the successful use of trusts requires effective management. Correctly managing a trust can be complex and time consuming, but by working with our experts, you can rest assured that everything will be taken care of.

Our tax compliance and trust management specialists work across Kent, the South East and nationally and have extensive experience of administering a wide range of family trusts, foundations, charitable trusts and family investment companies, covering many different types of asset class.

We understand how important it is for you to work with trusted advisers who really understand your unique situation and aims. Our team build strong relationships with clients, and have worked with many clients for generations, taking a proactive approach that is tailored to individual needs. We work closely with our clients’ wealth advisers to ensure a joined-up service that works for you.

We deal with the management of trusts and the underlying entities, including:

  • Discretionary trusts
  • Life interest trusts
  • Bare trusts
  • Charitable trusts
  • Personal injury trusts
  • Will trusts.

We also advise on the tax implications of setting up a trust, working with our Wills, Estate & Tax Planning team.

Our trust management services include:

  • Preparing monthly and quarterly management accounts including cash flow reports and investment performance reports
  • Dealing with the day to day administration such as arranging payment of invoices, school fees, liaising with investment professionals in respect of the purchase and sale of investments and ensuring sufficient cash flow to meet the running expenses of trusts and their underlying entities
  • Advising on a trustee’s duties and powers
  • Assisting with the choice of an investment adviser
  • Preparing trust accounts and financial statements
  • Managing the trust’s tax affairs and preparing annual tax returns
  • Registration on HMRC’s Trust Registration Service, and ongoing maintenance of the register
  • Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) reporting, including FATCA reporting
  • Calculating and paying tax liabilities
  • Advising on tax savings for trustees and tax implications for beneficiaries
  • Arranging the collection of income, asset sales and purchases, cash movements and other transactions
  • Making distributions of income and capital and preparing relevant deeds and trustee resolutions
  • Preparing Inheritance Tax accounts for periodic and exit charges
  • Advising on the ownership and occupation of residential property
  • Retiring and appointing trustees
  • Winding up trusts.

Trust disputes

Trust disputes arise in a number of contexts, not all of which are actively contentious, including:

  • Breach of trust and removal of trustees
  • Disputes about trustee powers and duties
  • Claims against the validity of a trust, including mistake
  • Disclosure of trust documents and accounts
  • Applications to vary a trust or for directions of the court
  • Disputes between trustees or with beneficiaries
  • Third party claims or attacks upon the trust (for example upon the divorce of a beneficiary)
  • Negligent legal or tax advice when the trust was set up.

Decisions on whether trustees should get involved in disputes and how they should pursue them carry potentially serious personal cost consequences for trustees. Our team has experience in dealing with disputes in all of the above circumstances and many more.

We also work closely with our specialist Wills, Estate & Tax Planning team, and with our Trust Management experts, and advise on preventative measures that can be taken by clients to try to avoid trust disputes.

Property tax compliance

Specialist advice on the various tax implications of owning, buying, letting and selling property.

Property owners, from those with multiple homes in the UK and abroad to residential and commercial landlords with property portfolios of all sizes, need practical, expert advice and support on the various tax implications of buying, selling and owning property.

Our property tax specialists have extensive experience in offering advice and support in relation to:

  • Annual Enveloped Dwellings Tax (ATED)
  • Capital Gains Tax (CGT)
  • Capital Gains Tax on UK Property accounts and returns
  • Tax reliefs and elections on second or additional homes
  • Claiming main residence relief
  • Selling land or part of your garden
  • Selling a property you lived in or let out abroad
  • Buy to let and property portfolios
  • Income tax for property investors and developers
  • Where appropriate, registration on HMRC’s trust registration service and ongoing maintenance of the register
  • Tax reliefs and allowances for property owners.

As part of a full service law firm, we can also call on support from our Residential Property & Conveyancing, Real Estate and Wills, Estate & Tax Planning teams as appropriate.

Very approachable, helpful, diligent.

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