Private Client & Personal Tax

Our dedicated team of private client tax advisors and solicitors are committed to providing comprehensive support to you and your family. We specialise in delivering tailored advice to meet the unique needs of a diverse client base, including investors, entrepreneurs, family offices, professionals, senior executives, landlords, and beneficiaries.

We take pride in our holistic approach, seamlessly integrating our tax and legal expertise to offer a one-stop shop for all your private client needs. Our experience in working with a variety of clients, from families and their advisors to professional and non-professional landlords, ensures that we understand the specific challenges you face and can offer the most effective solutions.

Our Personal tax services include:

Inheritance and Estate tax planning

Sensible inheritance and estate tax planning ensures assets are transferred to the next generation in a considered manner while minimising potential tax liabilities. The following are some of the areas that we can assist you with:

Gifting money, or other assets, to make use of the various annual exemptions and allowances
Using trusts and/or gifts to remove assets from your estate during your lifetime
Introducing you to trusted intermediaries to allow you to invest in inheritance tax efficient funds and/or structures
Estate planning to ensure the preservation of the residence nil rate band
Reviewing your domicile position to determine what assets are within the scope of inheritance tax

Capital gains tax (CGT) returns

Since 6th April 2020, if you sell a residential property, and this gives rise to a tax liability, you must complete a separate return via the Revenue’s Capital Gains Tax on UK property account. For non-residents, a return is still required, even if there is no tax to pay. We can assist in:

Calculating the chargeable gain and CGT payable, advising you of any available reliefs (e.g. principal private residence relief) and ensuring all allowable deductions are claimed
Completion of the resulting returns for both residents and non-residents
For disposals by non-residents, we will consider all three methods of calculating the gain – default (April 2015 value), straight-line time apportionment and retrospective – and ensure that you are taxed in the most beneficial way

Self-assessment tax returns

If you are required to complete a personal self-assessment return, it is essential that this is filed accurately and on time. Failure to do so may result in penalties, interest charges and possible enquiries into your broader tax affairs.

Our self-assessment services cover individuals, sole traders (self-employed) and partnerships, landlords and non-residents. We will:

Ensure that your return is completed error-free and submitted by the usual deadline, updating you of the progress along the way
Explain how your liability for the period has arisen and ensure that you are aware of how and when to make payment to the Revenue (if a repayment is due, we will request that this is paid to an account of your choosing)
Advise you of any potential ways to mitigate your tax exposure and optimise your tax position
Deal with any queries from HMRC on your behalf in a timely manner

Residency and Domicile advice and Planning

The income, capital gains and inheritance tax treatment for individuals is different depending on their residency and domicile position. We can:

Advise you of your residence position, according to the rules and conditions set out in HMRC’s statutory residence test
Ensure that you are being taxed correctly on your UK source (for non-residents) and foreign income and advise you of any tax mitigation opportunities by breaking UK tax residency
Review your domicile position according to your residency status and other factors, including your country of birth
Ensure that your foreign income and/or gains are being taxed correctly in the UK and advise you of whether it is beneficial to claim the remittance basis.

Pension contribution and Annual allowance planning

Contributing to a pension scheme is one of the few remaining ways to effectively reduce your tax exposure. However, there are specific rules to determine how much you are able to contribute while still receiving tax relief. We will:

Review your historic contributions and income levels to determine if there is scope to make further contributions, thereby saving you more tax
Inform you if you have been affected by the annual allowance tapering rules and advise you if there is scope to offset any potential pension savings charges
Introduce you to trusted intermediaries to review your current pension provisions and/or set up a new plan

Investment structuring

Structured properly, you can mitigate, or even avoid, paying tax on your investment income. When preparing your tax return, we will review your various income sources and advise you of possible ways to mitigate your tax exposure through the re-organisation of the assets you hold. This may involve inter-spousal transfers or gifts to other family members. Or the creation of family trusts or investment companies.

Where appropriate, we will work with members of our legal team to ensure that any transfers are made accurately and in the most beneficial way.

Tax investigations and Enquiries

HMRC often look into the affairs of taxpayers. Commonly, these inspections take place at random to ensure that income has been reported correctly or that expenses have not been claimed excessively. But on other occasions, it is because the Revenue have received information to suggest that the taxpayer has not declared everything on their return.

We can liaise with the Revenue throughout the enquiry process, explaining any positions taken, or assumptions made, on the return. If their checks relate to undeclared income and/or gains, we will seek to rectify your position as quickly and efficiently as possible, and will always look to mitigate any penalties that may be charged, where appropriate.

Our Private client solicitors advise on:

Wills and Succession planning

Making a Will or updating it regularly ensures changes in your circumstances are covered. Even if you already have a Will it may be out if date or invalid because of

Divorce
Marriage
Foreign Property ownership
Guardianship and Children
Cohabitation

We can offer consultations with our clients to discuss individual needs and to provide advice to tailor individual circumstances. We can assist with:

Will drafting and advice on succession and Inheritance Tax Planning
Variation of existing Wills;
Acting as professional Executor in your Will and estate

Lasting Powers of Attorney

It is important to make plans for the future and to choose somebody to look after your affairs and personal welfare should you lose capacity as a result of mental or physical ill health. We can assist our clients in the drafting and registration of Lasting Powers of Attorney, for both financial affairs and Health & Welfare.

Probate and Estate administration

Dealing with the death of a loved one can be distressing and daunting when faced with having to sort out their estate. At Z group we can help to ease the burden with our sympathetic and hands on approach. We have experience in dealing with both simple and complex estates and those with cross-border assets. We also provide advice on administering estates where there is no Will (intestacy) and offer advice on post-death variations to include the tax implications of the variations.

We can assist you with:

Applying for a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration
Advice on Intestacy
Administration of the Estate
Deeds of Variation
Acting as a Professional Executor

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