Clients were from Hong Kong and had recently come to the UK under British National (Overseas) visas. With assets both in the UK and Hong Kong, they needed advice on a range of matters, including particular concerns around ownership of property as well as their tax position and the status of their wills.
The team’s experience in advising clients with assets in multiple jurisdictions, meant they could support on domicile and deemed domicile rules for inheritance tax purposes, how the statutory residence test applies and the impact this would have on a deemed domicile status.
Given the complex nature of their assets, the Private Client team also advised on the range of trusts available to them including co-ownership of property and other possible trust structures such as life interest, discretionary and bare trusts.
As their estate was both in the UK and overseas, specialist advice was needed in relation to cross-border tax issues, as well as cross border issues in relation to their wills and eventual estate administration.
The advice we were able to provide will now ensure that their assets are held in a tax efficient way and be inherited by their intended beneficiaries.