The proposal is that the unused amount of the individual nil rate band will now pass to the survivor spouse. This provides a real opportunity for the family in considering the estate of anyone who dies after 9 October 2007 and who was widowed since 18 March 1986. It is possible that there will be up to two nil rate bands to set against the estate.

This is retrospective and is likely to be helpful in both lifetime and post-death planning.

The announcement is that there will be an announcement shortly with a view to introducing legislation from 6 April 2008 to stop income shifting…

At the risk of being repetitive - further and better particulars will follow…

The £30K is in addition to the tax that would be payable on the remitted income. There will be frantic calculations as to whether the advice should be to remit now. There is no information currently on if or how that will fit with any double taxation treaties…

There are a number of detailed attacks which have a small effect but cumulatively are pernicious. From 6 April 2008 it will not be possible to combine a claim for personal allowances with the remittance basis unless your unremitted income is less than £1000 per year.

The residence rules got a lot of publicity earlier in the year and despite their protestations at the time the Revenue have now said that after 6 April 2008 the days of arrival and days of departure will be counted as days of presence in the UK. This is bad news for international commuters.

The final sting in the tail is that there are various “corrections to anomalies”. In short these are:

Stopping the manipulation of the remittance basis by claiming it one year and not the next
•  Stopping the source ceasing rules
•  Reducing the scope for the alienation of income or gains using offshore trusts and companies – we will wait with bated breath for that one…
•  Applying avoidance measures which do not currently remittance basis users.

Some of these are are quite scary and there are potentially enormous changes to both existing arrangements and the way in which we plan for non UK domiciliaries.

A consultation is promised but it will perforce be a short one if legislation is to be introduced in FA08 as the consultation papers will not be issued to the end of the year. Far be it from us to suggest this is a cynical attempt to minimise the opportunity for anyone to consider matters properly. We will be posting further details as soon as we can.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pbr2007/pbrn18.pdf. 

The Chancellor confirmed that the existing rules will apply until 5 April 2008. depending on whether you have business assets that qualify for full taper relief (an effective rate of tax of 10%) or non-business assets (best possible rate 24%) you have either a five month window to realise a gain or a short period to wait before you sell.

This is complicated and you need to review the CGT position on assets urgently.

The changes outlined do not apply to companies.