If you registered a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) or an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2017 you are eligible for a refund of part of the registration fee from the Office of the Public Guardian (the OPG). Applications for a refund of fees must be made by 1 February 2021.

The recently published Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) report on capital gains tax (CGT) went a lot further than simply proposing an increase in CGT rates. While it's important not to read too much into the report, rumours of changes to the CGT regime have been around for some time now. CGT raises only around £8bn in tax each year - compared to £180bn from income tax – but the present government's commitment not to raise income tax, National Insurance contributions or VAT definitely puts CGT in the firing line.

The main recommendations from the OTS are:

Most people don't need to concern themselves with paying capital gains tax (CGT) when they sell their home. This is because Principal Private Residence Relief (known as PPR), which applies to the disposal of a person's only or main residence, generally means that any gain in the value of their home is fully exempt from CGT.

On Tuesday 3 November, Alexander Dickinson and Charlotte Patterson-Ryan, joined Andy Green and Venetia Hoare from C. Hoare & Co, as well as hosts Johnny Dudgeon, Emily Norton and Lucian Cook from Savills for a panel discussion on the future of Rural Estates.

Gifts of land with hope value are often considered when looking to reduce a potential liability to inheritance tax on death. If the donor gives the land away when planning permission could be many years in the future he or she will have made a gift of relatively low value, leaving his or her chosen beneficiaries to benefit from the development upside in years to come. Such a gift will either be a potentially exempt transfer if the gift is outright to one or more individuals or a chargeable lifetime transfer if made to trustees. Either way the donor of the gift has to survive seven years for the value to be completely outside their estate for inheritance tax purposes.

Anybody who lives in the UK and owns property or other assets in France will know that there are many differences between the French and English legal systems, particularly when it comes to succession law and taxation.