News

The England and Wales High Court (EWHC) has ordered the tenant of a London property to pay GBP851,000 in rent to his landlord, despite the tenant’s claim that payment would be illegal because the landlord is a designated person under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. The EWHC agreed that, while regulations 12 and...

The amount of inheritance tax (IHT) collected by HMRC continues to rise rapidly, reaching £ 6.7 billion in the 2022/23 tax year, some 12 percent higher than the 2021/22 figure. One in every 21 deaths resulted in an IHT charge, equal to the previous high of 2016/17 before the residential nil-rate band was introduced. The...

HMRC has launched an enforcement campaign targeting tax agents who claim repayment of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) because the property needs extensive repairs, is uninhabitable, and therefore not liable to residential SDLT. HMRC’s stance is based on the recent England and Wales Court of Appeal decision in Mudan v HMRC (2025 EWCA Civ 799), which agreed with...

Several probate research firms have urged the government to tighten up security on unclaimed estates before considering republication of the Bona Vacantia list. The list was withdrawn from public view on 7 July 2025, after a BBC investigation suggested it was being exploited by organised criminals to obtain grants of representation over estates containing unoccupied property...

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has imposed a GBP77,784 fine on a London-based law firm. It was fined for failing to comply with the client risk assessment rules for three years and failing to carry out an independent anti-money laundering (AML) compliance audit. There was no evidence of any harm to consumers or to third...

Criminals have hacked the online tax accounts of 100,000 taxpayers to claim GBP47 million of fraudulent repayments, HMRC has acknowledged. Most of the attacks were conducted by phishing using credentials obtained from non-HMRC sources to either set up new HMRC accounts or hijack existing ones, rather than by breaches of HMRC security. HMRC is writing...

The England and Wales High Court has agreed to immediate committal of a defendant after he failed to distribute to the claimant the GBP138,000 proceeds of an estate of which he was sole executor (Saleemi v Asif Parvez, 2025 EWHC 1340 Ch). The defendant had sent the estate accounts by email to the claimant’s solicitor in December...

The UK Supreme Court (UKSC) has overruled all lower courts in deciding that One Savings Bank should have realised that Catherine Waller-Edwards was acting under the undue influence of her cohabitant when she agreed a remortgage of their home. The UKSC unanimously held that a creditor is put on inquiry in any non-commercial hybrid transaction...

The First-tax Tier Tribunal (FTT) has rejected three business owners’ claims that GBP10 million they received from cancelled shares in their company was exempted from tax under the transactions in securities legislation. The FTT accepted HMRC’s contention that the legislation contained an error and the words ‘despite the fact’ meant ‘where’, not ‘even where’. This...

The England and Wales High Court (EWHC) has granted an investment bank’s request to sell the contents of 14 safe deposit boxes whose owners cannot be traced. The bank’s predecessors had held the boxes for between 44 and 122 years and had contacted the owners when closing their UK retail operations in 1994. However, some...