Alec Alegria Alegria itibaren Castelrotto CN, Italia
BOOK REVIEW TOLLEY’S UK TAXATION OF TRUSTS 20th edition By Matthew Hutton Tolley LexisNexis ISBN: 978-0-7545-3919-3 www.lexisnexis.co.uk THE TAXATION OF ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE TRUSTS: ALL IN ONE DEFINITIVE AND ACCESSIBLE GUIDE An Appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers This is often a complicated and bewildering subject! The taxation of trusts, whether they are income, capital gains, or corporation taxes is clearly explained in ‘Tolley’s Taxation of Trusts’ … and to great effect. If you need to keep abreast of the latest developments in this area, you’ll need this latest edition from Tolley. The bulk of the book’s ammunition is delivered in part I – the first 20 chapters - on UK Resident Trusts, which covers the subject in detail, from types of trust, beneficiaries and trustees to starting a trust, running it and ending it. The detailed ramifications of Inheritance Tax are logically explored and there is a chapter each for Charitable Trusts and Stamp Taxes. There are 3 chapters devoted to the subject of compliance – specifically on income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax, with Chapters 18 - 20 dealing, respectively, with the interest and penalty regimes. Part II -- the last 5 chapters -- focuses on non-UK Resident Trusts and should ideally be required reading for all those advising UK families or individuals who either have such trusts or have some connection with them as beneficiaries. Hutton refers readers who focus on this area to the specialist texts available on the subject. The book contains much new material, the main point of interest being, as the author points out, the election of a Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition Government. This has led, among other things, to two Finance Acts in 2010. A major new development here, just to cite one example, is the return (from June 2010) to variable rates of capital gains tax. There’s no change, however, in inheritance tax for 2010-2011. These, and all other recent developments, are included in this new edition, from updates of “Compliance” and “Self Assessment” to the impact of cases such as Brander on business property relief cases. In addition to all this, the book is a mine of fiscal resources to aid further research, with tables of statutes, cases and statutory instruments, plus 6 appendices and an excellent index. For specialist practitioners whose clients demand and deserve best advice in this complex field, this latest edition from Tolley is indispensible. Changes in the law have been taken into account up to the end of July 2010 and provide the most definitive and accessible statement of the taxation of trusts to date.
I am actually not sure who I would recommend this book to. I think people who would be interested in a memoir about raising a special-needs child, especially in a milieu of super-high-intellectual-achieving individuals, would be rather put off by Gilman's unique take and tone. On one hand I totally "get" where she's going by weaving her own private passion for Wordsworth and Romantic poetry and ideals into her decidedly unromantic "real" life full of struggle and frustration and misery and shame. I get it. I just don't think it's necessarily fully successful. I understand that Gilman was raised in a real bubble of East Coast/New England/boarding school/prep school/Yale/graduate school/academic life, and I think she sort of makes a big deal out of "leaving" that life behind, but that life really bleeds into her sometimes arch, sometimes willfully naive writing style, and it grates. I think she has something interesting to say about living in a certain kind of world, and being the first person in her family to have a child of her own, both of which contribute to the "slowness" of Gilman and then the rest of her family to even realize something is truly wrong with her son. Some quibbles--being on the "other side of the table", so to speak, in having worked many years in special education with younger children, her attitude toward educational institutions that are actually trying to help her son is sometimes very frustrating. It's interesting to think that on one hand Gilman had lived her whole life in this precious bubble, and explores her struggle to burst that bubble (and the pain in doing so), yet she actually tries hard to wrap her own child in a similar bubble where the entire world is supposed to magically rework itself all to the needs and comfort of her child. Also, it must be said, sometimes what's fascinating and adorable to parents appears rather unpleasant and spoiled to "outsiders". Ahem. Anyway--it's a lyrically written book, covering a very difficult subject from a unique point of view, but doesn't quite completely jell together as a whole.