Simon Sweetman's Blog

There's a long history of songs being written about tax, but some lyrics ring truer than others.

In wartime, people are generally more positive about taxes. For example, witness the following lyrics by Irving Berlin:

Simon Sweetman assesses a complex IHT case for charitable trust. How generous should you be?

The case outlined below was brought to me recently and, having seen the documents, I can confirm that it’s a true story.

A solicitor had submitted an IHT return for a ten year anniversary charge for a discretionary trust. The trust owns shares in two unquoted companies. One of them was a straightforward property rental business, while the other had been a family farm but is now merely renting out part of its land to a horse based (but not farming) business.

I imagine that most of the visitors to this site also read Taxation magazine. Many of you will have read Mike Truman’s article earlier this month called ‘Defending the Indefensible’. This put forward the view that the age of weird and wonderful artificial tax planning is at an end, even without HMRC firing another shot.

Tracey Emin was recently added to the list of well known figures reportedly leaving Britain for tax reasons. ‘Good riddance’, says Simon Sweetman.

Tracey Emin, queen of Britart, is considering moving to France for tax reasons. According to The Times: “She joins a threatened exodus by celebrities, footballers and hedge fund bosses in search of less onerous tax regimes”. When drawing up a list of those who would not be missed, most people in this country would probably have produced something very similar.

Simon Sweetman reflects on his recent experience of being chosen to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of sculptor Antony Gormley’s living monument, One & Other*.