Of potentially greater interest for advisers with expatriate and non-dom clients, however, are two consultations due out next week: one on non-domicle taxation, and the other having to do with a plan to introduce a statutory definition of residence, in order to provide greater certainty for taxpayers and their advisers.
The statutory definition of residence is an issue of particular relevance to many advisers, because of the difficulty in knowing precisely when an individual is deemed to have made a complete break with the UK for tax purposes. A long-relied-on standard, counting the number of days a year someone has spent in the UK, has proved not to be as reliable as many have assumed, as was discovered in a recent landmark case involving a British entrepreneur Robert Gaines-Cooper.
As reported last year, Gaines-Cooper lost his case, in part because he was considered not to have sufficiently cut his family and social ties to Britain even though he stayed away enough days to be considered a non-resident.He was granted leave to appeal his case to the Supreme Court, where the case has yet to be decided.
The IHT consultation scheduled to be released tomorrow originally had been expected today, an HMRC spokesman said.
