The pre-Budget report – not much for trustees and executors for now

This issue of Trustees & Estates is appearing somewhat late in the month, owing to the Chancellor’s lack of respect for editorial deadlines when fixing the date of his pre-Budget report. In fact, there was almost nothing, on the face of it, taking immediate effect. Indeed, in one respect a cloud has lifted somewhat. HMRC made it clear that they were unhappy with the House of Lords’ decision in the article services case ( Jones v Garnett 2007 STC 1536). This confirmed that if a husband gifted company shares to his wife, the dividends paid to her were to be treated as her income and not attributed to the husband under the ‘settlement’ rules. A consultation paper was issued, threatening dire penalties upon those deemed guilty of ‘income shifting’. It has now been announced that: