Co-incidentally, following my last blog, yet another Trust issue has arisen. When I first met the solicitor in Stockport who specialises in trust and estate planning about 3 months ago, although we’d had a very interesting discussion about how, despite recent tax changes, trusts still have a place in modern tax planning, we’d swapped business cards not really knowing if our paths would cross again.
So a few weeks ago, I received a call from an accountant in Manchester who had a client with plans to develop a plot of land into a business venture and he just wanted to make sure that he had properly considered the tax implications. He had arranged a meeting for the following day and wondered if I could sit in.
It soon became clear that the development wasn’t as straight forward as originally advised, as the land was held within a trust, set up by the client’s father. The client didn’t have the paperwork relating to the trust with him but promised to forward it to me.
When the deed was sent across, I was concerned that the situation wasn’t actually how the client had explained it and so I called the lawyer. After a brief call, he confirmed my doubt and suggested that we have another meeting with the client to talk through the terms of the deed.
In the meantime the lawyer is speaking with the original trustees to obtain the original paperwork from when the trust was set up, back in 1997.
Leave a Reply