Specialist team:
Private Client
Experience:
Charles advises UK and international clients on wills, trusts, tax and estate planning. He specialises in inheritance tax (IHT) planning and the tax on ‘pre-owned assets’ and advises clients not domiciled in the UK on their tax affairs, particularly in the use of trusts to mitigate capital gains tax and IHT.
Recent experience includes:
- advising non-UK domiciliaries on how to minimise their exposure to UK tax, including avoiding having to pay the £30k charge, following the Finance Act 2008
- formulating and putting in place a strategy for a very wealthy European domiciliary with assets and structures in various jurisdictions to raise funds by borrowing against assets held in trust and also to shelter his estate from UK IHT
- advising on passing a substantial country estate down within a family in a tax-efficient manner
- devising and implementing a complex will-based structure for the owner of a very substantial UK company, and his wife
- advising trustees and other individuals on the options following the extensive changes to IHT introduced by the Finance Act 2006
- devising solutions for clients affected by the pre-owned assets tax
- devising and implementing will-based techniques to enhance the IHT savings for married couples under the transferrable nil rate band regime
- varying a complex will to enable the heirs to reclaim over £1.5m of IHT
- applying to the Court for the trust period of a very large settlement to be extended, thereby avoiding a substantial tax liability
- advising on CGT main residence relief and extending it to second properties.
Charles joined Speechly Bircham as a trainee in 1996, was admitted as a solicitor in 1998 and became a partner in 2005. He obtained a first class degree at Durham University. Charles is on the technical committee of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and is in demand as a published author of practical advice in taxation journals.