Tax, tax and more tax!!

Thanks to the current government and the Prime Minister in waiting, the burden of tax upon individuals and businesses in this Country has risen to what, for many Journal readers, will be unbearable proportions. Apparently the average household in the UK now pays £6,000 more tax a year than it did when the Labour government came to power. As if the added burden of tax combined with the apparent endless waste of the money raised is not enough, the aim of the government and one in which it has largely succeeded, is the politicisation of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs service ("HMRC"). Consequently, what was once regarded as perfectly legitimate tax planning is now regarded in a rather less salubrious light by HMRC. The net effect of a government hell bent on raising more and more tax revenue is a more aggressive, politically orientated, Revenue service and ream upon ream of new legislation. Tax planning is in many cases no longer the domain of the generalist adviser and requires more specialist and sophisticated advice than ever before.

At Sandersons Solicitors we have worked hard to develop a specialist tax practice, which goes further than the usual wills and inheritance tax planning you would expect of most Solicitors private client departments. Our tax expertise has been developing for over 20 years and started with the firm’s late Senior Partner, Peter Martin. It has been carried on by the firm’s now Senior Partner, Duncan Rann and has developed into a department of four fee earners. We like to think that tax and tax planning is much more about the law than the numbers and therefore the natural domain of lawyers rather than accountants and we have applied this approach successfully to our practice for a number of years.

We can offer specialist advice in the following areas:

Inheritance tax planning, from estates just around the nil rate band mark (currently £285,000) to the very largest estates.

Capital gains tax planning, from buying a house for children at University to selling your company.

Income tax planning, where we have developed and employ a number of schemes for higher end earners.

Tax planning through trusts.

Advice on foreign jurisdictions.

Tax Emigration and offshore tax planning, in relation to which we have long standing contacts with advisers in low and no tax jurisdictions.

As a result of our tax practice we have gained a wide variety of unusual clients including four English Premiership football clubs and one of the large SPL clubs, some sportsmen (mostly footballers), large companies and foreign corporations and many high net worth individuals. Our ethos is fairness in all our dealings, with H M Revenue and Customs, as well as with clients and we never encourage our clients to enter into schemes that expose them to undue or unforeseen risks. Our clients like this middle of the road approach to tax planning and it has meant that by and large we have avoided a great deal of confrontation with HMRC (and therefore cost to the client) at the same time as legitimately saving our clients substantial amounts of tax.

If you have a tax problem or planning issues in any of the above areas, we are happy to help. You can contact in the first instance Geraldine Martin (who is a specialist in inheritance tax planning) and she will ensure that the matter is dealt with by the right person.

Tel: 01482 324662

Fax: 01482 860118

Email: gmartin@sandersonssolicitors.co.uk

 Source: The Journal, November 2006