Our Expertise

The landscape for international individuals and families is becoming ever more complex as tax rules change with increasing rapidity, and compliance and transparency requirements become more stringent.

We can advise you on a wide range of matters, whether you are a resident non-domiciliary, a UK person with family or assets abroad, a non-resident with family or assets in the UK, or a member of an international family with people, businesses and assets in multiple jurisdictions. We can also help if you are the trustees of an offshore trust or a family office, private bank or a professional looking after international individuals or their wealth structures. In particular:

We advise on domicile and residence matters to enable individuals to understand their UK tax position and reporting obligations. We also help those who want to remain or become either UK resident or UK non-resident

We assist non-doms to get to grips with the complex tax regime that applies to them, explaining the opportunities and helping them avoid the pitfalls

We provide guidance on offshore trusts and other holding structures and advise on UK trust and tax matters as they affect the settlor, trustees and beneficiaries

If you have assets, eg a holiday home, abroad, we can help you navigate the foreign succession and tax laws so that your assets go to the right beneficiaries and you do not end up paying tax in two different countries unnecessarily

We can help if you live outside the UK but want to invest in UK real estate, a business or other investments in a tax efficient manner, or if you want to help family members who live in the UK

We have expertise in helping entrepreneurs and business owners whose personal and business connections span a number of countries.

Specialist advice includes:

Business Owners and Business Structuring

We help resident and non-resident business owners meet their commercial and family objectives in an efficient way.

We can assist and advise on various matters relating to your business ventures including:

• Taxation of the business entity, shareholders and employees
• The special personal tax rules that apply to shareholders in closely held companies
• The impact of directors, managers or owners becoming UK resident
• Extraction of profits
• Achieving a smooth transition to the next generation, whether family members or alternative managers
• Advising on the role trusts have as business holding vehicles

Investment in the UK

The UK is an attractive place to invest for both UK resident non-domiciliaries and non-residents. There have been far-reaching changes to the tax rules in recent years in relation to the holding of UK residential property and prospective changes have been announced to the taxation of commercial investment properties. We can help and advise on matters including:

• The tax treatment of direct and indirect investments
• The establishment of holding structures for investments including trusts and companies, and the tax implications of such structures
• Extracting profits
• Investing in UK residential or commercial real estate: Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax, SDLT, taxation of rent, the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme
• The impact of changes to the non-domicile rules
• Tax incentives to invest in UK companies
• Tax incentives for non-domiciliaries to invest in UK property and trading businesses

International Pensions

A globally mobile executive may have pension funds in a number of jurisdictions (including the UK) and/or may have funds in an offshore pension plan based in a low tax jurisdiction. Bona fide international plans are caught by anti-avoidance rules that can have draconian tax implications. Together with your financial advisor we can help and advise on:

• The UK taxation of benefits from your pension schemes
• The application of the remittance basis to pensions
• The timing of benefits and the best way to receive them
• The importance of double taxation treaties to avoid a double tax charge
• The export of your UK pension scheme

US/UK Planning

We say tom-ah-to and they say tom-ay-to. We ask for the bill and pay with a cheque. They ask for the check and pay with a bill. We tax on the basis of domicile and residence and they tax on the basis of citizenship. Anyone who has family, property or trust connections with both the US and the UK needs to understand how this affects their tax position and what reporting obligations they have in both countries.

We work with selected US lawyers and accountants or with your own advisors to help and advise on issues including:

• Being an “accidental American” and what that means for your tax liabilities
• Estate, succession and tax planning for mixed couples
• How to provide for the American in the family
• Double taxation and double tax reliefs
• Trusts and the impact of an American beneficiary, and what trustees can do about it
• Getting tax relief for charitable donations in both jurisdictions

Cross-Border Succession

UK individuals who own assets abroad, or marry someone from another country or who live abroad, and non-UK nationals who own property in the UK or marry someone from the UK or who live here, are likely to have to contend with more than one system of inheritance and more than one set of tax charges on gifts during lifetime or by Will.

We work with selected firms in other countries to provide across-the-board help and advice on:

• Which inheritance regimes you will be subject to and how to resolve any conflicts between them
• Preventing the application of an adverse regime
• The use of trusts to deal with succession, and their treatment in other countries
• The EU Succession Regulation: how it can help you and when to opt out
• Taxation, double taxation and reliefs from double taxation
• Making and changing your Will: worldwide Wills and multiple Wills for different jurisdictions
• Dealing with probates in the UK and coordinating foreign probates

Offshore Trusts

Offshore trusts often feature in the tax and succession planning of non-resident and non-domiciled individuals. They are extremely flexible vehicles that can be adapted to meet the needs of international families as members move from country to country and tax rules and family dynamics change. Trusts have many uses, including:

• Separating control from financial benefit to protect vulnerable beneficiaries or hold the balance between the interests of different beneficiaries
• Providing an efficient holding vehicle for business interests, the management of them and succession to them
• Ensuring assets are ultimately inherited by the right people
• Managing tax in multiple jurisdictions

We can help and advise on all aspects of offshore trusts including:

• Helping you understand the nature of a trust, the powers of the trustees, control mechanisms and how the trust operates in practice
• The establishment of trusts, family trust corporations and underlying companies, if required
• The tax position of the settlor, the trustees and the beneficiaries, as well as planning opportunities and traps to watch out for
• The impact of the new non-domicile rules on the taxation of settlors and beneficiaries
• The powers of the trustees and how they can achieve their objectives
• Appointment and removal of trustees and protectors, and associated indemnities
• Drafting deeds of appointment and ancillary trust documents
• Structuring the holding of businesses
• Taxation

The Remittance Basis

UK resident non-domiciliaries are eligible to claim the “remittance basis”, a favourable regime under which an individual is taxed on UK income and gains in the normal way, but is exempt from tax on non-UK income and capital gains unless they are brought to the UK. We can help and advise on all aspects of the remittance basis and remittance planning, including:

• How you can take advantage of the remittance basis and traps to watch out for
• Generating “clean capital” for tax-free spending in the UK
• How to claim and how much it costs
• The remittance basis and offshore trusts, whether you are the settlor, a beneficiary or the trustee
• Claiming loss relief on offshore losses
• How the new non-domicile rules affect the remittance basis

Residence and Domicile

Residence and domicile determine your liability for tax in the UK and are important in establishing who will inherit your estate in the event of your death. We provide help and advice on areas including:

• Your current status and the impact on your tax position and succession planning
• Changing your status, eg so that you become non-resident, and guiding you in what you need to do to become non-domiciled
• If you plan to come to the UK, pre-arrival planning to enable you to mitigate future UK tax and enable you to take maximum advantage of favourable tax rules for non-domiciled individuals, ie those whose permanent home is outside the UK
• Becoming non-resident and the tax implication of doing so
• Taking advantage of the favourable remittance basis available to UK resident non-domiciliaries
• The new non-domicile rules and in particular, planning for deemed domicile and the special position of those non-domiciliaries who were born in the UK and who wish to become resident again

If you wish to speak to a member of our team and discuss how we can be of further assistance to you, please contact us on Info@nqpltd.com