By Tony Nunes and Amy Liu, Kelly+Partners Chartered Accountants
The 2018 Australian Federal Budget announced integrity measures affecting testamentary trusts. These changes are effective from 01 July 2019 and affect distributions from testamentary trusts to minor beneficiaries. Unfortunately, the issue of whether superannuation assets form part of the deceased’s estate, remains unresolved.
By Ashishkumar Bairagra, M L Bhuwania and Co LLP
It’s been said that you cannot imagine the gravity of a situation until it happens to you. A few months ago, my friend’s wife Rachel called to inform me that my friend Asher did not survive a heart attack while driving his car. Asher has just celebrated his 40th birthday last year and was a seemingly healthy individual. He left a registered will and Rachel inherited everything, but how would she take care of it, rather all of it!
By Craig Ross, Pallett Valo LLP
You’ve heard the terms – cryptocurrency, blockchain, bitcoin – but unless you have been personally dabbling in the emerging virtual currency marketplace, it is unlikely you have given it much thought. This article attempts to decode the mystery of cryptocurrency, explains its legality in Canada, and discusses whether cryptocurrency can form a legitimate part of a deceased’s estate.
By CA Raghu Marwah & CA Anjali Kukreja,R.N. Marwah & Co LLP
India and United Kingdom (UK) have a strong bilateral investment relationship. Top five investors of UK include India whereas UK ranks on top of the G20 investors in India. There were rife speculations that political and economic uncertainty in UK over Brexit would deter Indian investments i.e. the Indian companies would hold back on UK expansion plans or at least defer opening new offices in UK. However, Indian investments have continued to show great confidence in UK and have grown very strongly amidst the ever changing political and economic scenario of UK.
By Hed Amitai and Rich Risino, Memery Crystal LLP
Since the introduction of the Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) in 2013, corporates holding properties have been targeted, with changes to tax law being implemented on an almost yearly basis. ATED capital gains tax, non-resident capital gains tax, income and corporation tax changes and alignments have all been or are being introduced.
By Florian Vila and Prof Robert Anthony, Anthony & Cie
Our experience shows that international inheritance can be complex and diffcult to honour. In addition, in some cases where testaments are filed in different countries and depend on different laws, several readings of the deceased’s testamental wishes can be made. Situations can leave the door wide open to conflicts between heirs and may also create confusion on the application of inheritance tax. In this case, which law will prevail?
By Ian Macdonald, Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP
As Scotland and England are part of the same island and have shared a Parliament for nearly 300 years (from 1707 till the Scottish Parliament was established to deal with some legal and policy matters in 1999), you might assume that the law in the two countries on most matters is the same. Nothing could be further from the truth, particularly in the area of trusts.
By Brigitte Jakoby, Jakoby Dr. Baumhof – Wirtschaftsprüfer Steuerberater Rechtsanwälte
The term “family pool” can not be found in any legal text. It is not a legal term. Basically, it defines a company, in which the family assets are collected, hold and handed over in an easy way to the fol-lowing generations. Purposes of these family companies can be the preservation of the family assets on the one hand, the fair treatment of heirs, an useful designed asset succession regarding tax law or the efficient management of the family assets. Depending on the respective family assets, the em-phasis on the aforementioned target parameters can be very different.
By Patrick J. McCormick, Drucker & Scaccetti, P.C.
Estate and gift tax techniques that are the foundation of common planning strategies do not necessarily apply to noncitizens or nonresidents.
By Sergio Guerrero Rosas, Guerrero y Santana, S.C.
For that statement to be true, we must have control of what we want for our family and our heritage before any eventuality. If this is not the case, let's not allow our dream to become our worst nightmare; foreseeing possible disagreements is the best way to prevent them from happening.
