By virtue of The Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (Tolerable Standard) (Extension of Criteria) Amendment Order 2021, all homes in Scotland are now required by law to have at least two interlinked smoke alarms, a heat alarm and potentially a carbon monoxide detector. While there was a public awareness campaign carried out by the government ahead of the regulation coming into force on 1 February 2022, the buzz around the new rules has died down and many are still unaware of what exactly it is they need to install in their property to make it compliant.
By order of the Peaky Blinders … beware, spoiler alert
Following Tommy Shelby’s terminal diagnosis, those watching BBC’s final season of Peaky Blinders might be wondering how Tommy intends on distributing his estate and preserving his wealth by mitigating potential inheritance tax (“IHT”) liabilities. There are various options to explore when looking to mitigate a future IHT bill, a common one being lifetime gifting.
Let’s fast forward 90 years and assume Tommy passes away on 30 April 2022. Despite being unaware of his imminent diagnosis, Tommy had been mindful of mitigating a potential IHT bill and made various gifts to family over the years. As he no longer benefitted from those gifts and he’d hoped to survive at least the required 7 years, he’d assumed the gifts would be out with his estate on death. Let’s look at how Tommy’s gifts would be treated from an IHT perspective taking into account taper relief and various exemptions/allowances.
Legal reform on the horizon in the world of Artificial Intelligence
Ross Gardner, head of our Corporate team, is featured in the latest edition of AGCC’s Bulletin.
The phrase “it’s my baby” is often used in relation to work projects but could those words become the reality? For most start-up companies and SMEs operating in the energy sector, innovation and investment in digital technology are becoming increasingly important factors as they plan for growth in a post-pandemic environment, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) continually evolving as a key asset.
Ross looks at the possibility of changes to the existing legal framework which could potentially lead to a point where autonomous AI systems have a status similar to children.
Cryptoassets: Further Reforms and Regulatory Scrutiny
Jamie Hunter, Senior Associate in our Corporate team, is featured in the latest edition of AGCC’s Bulletin – Cryptoassets continue to attract significant attention from consumers and, as a consequence, governments and regulators worldwide.
Changes to law on “pre-packs” wide of the mark?
The term “pre-pack” is used when a company is put into administration and its business and/or assets immediately sold by the administrator under a sale that was arranged before the administrator was appointed. The main criticisms of pre-packs centre around a lack of transparency and fairness …
These are challenging times and the raft of support measures introduced by the government are very welcome. There are other measures that can help protect your business. Caveats act as an early-warning system in the event that certain types of action are raised at Court in Scotland against your business without your knowledge. They should therefore be considered as an integral tool of any business risk management strategy.
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