Insights

The dawn of Public Registries of Company ownership is upon us and is spreading around the globe. However, the approach to its adoption is not consistent and this doesn’t serve the global financial community well.

The Council of the European Union (Council) at its meeting on 5th December 2017 adopted its own conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. The list of those jurisdictions can be found in Annex I to the document entitled “Outcome of Proceedings” produced by the Council and its full version can be found here.

For any Trustees of Group company schemes wanting to retire as Trustees they should be aware of the recent ruling in the Jersey Royal Court regarding a Jersey based trust (the “Trust”) and the Trustee’s desire to retire as Trustee.

In the recent case of In the Matter of the F Charitable Trust [2017] JRC 142 the Jersey Royal Court (Court) provided guidance to the trustees as to what it expected from them when they plan to engage in litigation on behalf of the trust and what will the Court consider in order to bless such a trustee decision.

Jersey Finance, which is a body that represents and promotes Jersey internationally, commissioned an independent report to illustrate Jersey’s important role in the effective management of pension funds and other institutional assets.

The board of each company has specific aims and responsibilities that should ultimately work towards the long term success of the company. The responsibilities of the board and each individual board member are very rarely set out in the company’s constitutional documents; rather they are often set out within the terms of reference of the board meetings and/or within the documents that detail the remit and responsibilities of each individual board member.

In this briefing, I have attempted to consider two useful cases which deal with residence of non-UK companies for tax purposes.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is a multilateral framework of tax transparency and information sharing with over 140 jurisdictions participating on this initiative.

High Net worth individuals are increasingly interested in acquiring art and collectibles, whether it is as a pure investment to diversify from traditional asset classes, or for social and cultural reasons. No matter the driver for the acquisition or holding of Art, it is imperative that the Trustees take a diligent and meticulous approach in the acquisition, ongoing administration and disposal of art.