Tax tips newsletter for professionals

The remittance basis of taxation, under which non-domiciled UK residents could elect only to be taxed on foreign income and gains to the extent to which they were remitted to the UK in return for the payment of a fee, came to an end on 5 April 2025. A new residence-based regime now applies, under which domicile is irrelevant and UK residents are taxed on their worldwide income on an arising basis, wherever it originated and regardless of whether it is remitted to the UK. 

Sarah Bradford explores the four-year FIG regime available to new UK residents.

The tax treatment of trusts is complex, and an understanding of trust law is a great help.
The term ‘life tenant’ refers to a beneficiary of a fixed interest trust who is entitled to the trust income as it arises for life; the phrase ‘as it arises’ is important, as it means that no other person is entitled to the trust income before the life tenant. The trust is effectively transparent. 

Malcolm Finney outlines tax implications of a so-called Baker trust.

At their most basic level, share schemes can be split into two categories;

•    tax-advantaged schemes; and
•    non- tax-advantaged schemes.

Joe Brough considers the tax implications for employees when given share options in owner-managed businesses as part of their remuneration package. 

Andrew Needham looks at the claiming back of overpaid VAT from HMRC and their defence of unjust enrichment.

Unjust enrichment occurs when a business charges VAT in error but passes on the economic burden to its customer. In simple terms, this means that a business charged VAT on top of its price rather than accounting for VAT out of its income.  

Mark McLaughlin reviews two recent important tax cases:

A client may want to know in advance whether HMRC is going to challenge a particular transaction. Sometimes this can be achieved by obtaining a clearance from HMRC, which allows a client to know its view of the law ahead of time. 

David Tipping examines the circumstances in which a taxpayer or adviser can obtain a clearance from HMRC in advance of entering into a transaction.

Tax advisers get excited about the strangest things (principal private residence relief, anyone?) and trust practitioners are even worse (pre-2006 A&M trust? Yes please!) Sometimes though, we get a tax and trust case that is so controversial, the judgment completely flipped as it passed through the courts and tribunal system. 

Sam Hart looks at the rules around when trustees can get business asset disposal relief, and how a recent flip-flopping tax case actually gave some good insight into how the courts interpret tax legislation.