Insights
Welcome to A New Tax Year
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Welcome to A New Tax Year: 2019/2020 What You Need to Know
Have a read of our handy summary of everything you need to know about the changes coming in to play from 6 April 2019 and beyond. Emma Boyle, our tax manager, and the private client team are on hand to guide you through how these changes may affect you and any planning that could be beneficial to optimise your tax position.
Landmark ruling raises questions around divorce law
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Recent publicity around the Supreme Court’s refusal to grant a divorce to a woman, who claimed to be ‘trapped in a loveless marriage’ to her husband of 40 years, has highlighted the differences in divorce law in England and Wales, compared with Scotland.
STEP Journal Cohabitants' Rights July 2018
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STEP Journal July 2018
Jaclyn Russell and Magnus Mackay survey the landscape of succession law and cohabitants' rights in Scotland and discuss the potential for reform.
Cohabitant's rights in Scotland - a new perspective?
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As published within the STEP Journal
Magnus Mackay and Jaclyn Russell survey the landscape of succession law and cohabitant’s rights in Scotland and discuss the potential for reform
The succession rights of married and unmarried couples were brought into sharp focus last year when the Court of Appeal in England and Wales handed down its judgement in the case of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & Others v Jacqueline Smith [2017] EWCA Civ 1916. With the Scottish Government considering significant reform of succession law, the present arrangements, proposals for change and the potential impact of the case are of significant interest to Scottish practitioners.
Property jargon that hits home …..
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We tend to accept that sales people can occasionally use jargon to promote their product or service, and estate agents may do just that to make their properties attractive to prospective buyers. While there are rules in place to prevent misleading customers, and many descriptions are genuine, it’s important for buyers to exercise a degree of caution to ensure the description used isn’t open to interpretation..
Generational Planning - How to keep wealth in the family
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According to the latest report on wealth in Scotland, today’s young people are more reliant on inheritances, rather than earnings, to determine their living standards and wealth. This may prompt parents and grandparents to consider making a financial gift during their lifetime, rather than after.
Business Property Relief - Bringing the future into the present
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Latest reports suggest that the city’s economy is gradually rebounding from the effects of the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry. This is evidenced in a study by The UK Power House which places Aberdeen as the best performing city economy in Scotland, with the fifth best rate of growth in the UK. At the beginning of the year Aberdeen was also voted as the best location to launch a start-up business in the whole of UK.
Time for employers to weigh up their options
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Economic conditions are improving for many employers, with confidence rising amid signs of recovery in the energy industry – that could in turn lead to an increase in the use of employee share schemes and other forms of employee incentivisation.
