Keeping on the right side of the taxpaying line

The basis behind trusts and tax planning is the flexibility of English law, which enables the legal estate to be vested in the names of trustees but the beneficial interest to be held by them for others. It is this division of ownership that sets the scene for trust planning and sets apart our legal system from that of continental Europe. We all know that there were dramatic and draconian provisions in the Finance Act 2006, which seemed to have as its objective the destruction of the concept of the trust. The legislation was a disgrace to the English legal system. It was unheralded, ill-t...