Hylton-Potts Law Blog

Legal Issues and Opinions affecting people from across the UK


Tax avoidance

Directors of companies have an absolute duty to shareholders to reduce the company’s tax bill legitimately. Morals do not come into it. If they fail, they can be sued. So all this talk of “aggressive” tax avoidance makes good copy, but directors are obliged with their advisers to explore all legitimate routes. It may be that the current climate would result in advice that such schemes should be avoided as the gain not being worth the candle, but that was not the situation at the time when many people entered these schemes. HMRC believes that the “Liberty” tax avoidance scheme

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Electronic Acceptance

An excellent article in the Solicitors’ Journal on 5 August by John Marsden (solicitorsjournal.com) highlights the common situation of people clicking the “I accept” button, which people do constantly without reading the terms and conditions that they are agreeing to. UK contract law is based on offer and acceptance and “I accept” on the face of it means just that – Bassano –v- Toft (2014) EWHC 377(QB). One problem of course is who is actually clicking the button. The person or company making the offer with conditions receives an electronic message having somebody clicking the “I accept” button but who

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Tax Collection Without Process

The proposal that HMRC can take cash from taxpayers’ bank accounts without a Court Order, reverses the usual burden of proof. The real problem, however, is the huge number of errors made especially in Tax Credit assessments. An excellent article by Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times on 3 August (thesundaytimes.co.uk) highlights the problem. Also the criminal aspect should not be ignored. When it is found that HMRC have received a substantial underpayment, criminal sanctions can apply, and the very money that the taxpayer might need to pay for defence, or a fine, to avoid a harsher penalty, has been

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Non-Molestation Injunctions

An excellent article by District Judge Nigel Law in the Solicitors journal (www.solicitorsjournal.com) focuses on a real problem. To get legal aid in children cases, very often the parent has to prove that he or she has been harassed or assaulted by getting a Non-Molestation Order. In the days of social media a lot of the harassment is on text, or Facebook and this has to be converted into hard copy which can easily be done by being downloaded on to a PC. Be careful not to lose your mobile phone. These without notice ex-parte injunctions are dealt with very

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Russian Oligarchs and Asset Freezing

No doubt some Russian oligarchs are criminals and restricting their travel and seizing their assets is a proportionate response, but merely being connected to Putin is not. Where will it end? Just because a Russian oligarch has been bareback riding with Putin, does not make him a rogue. The legality of these sanctions is open to serious doubt anyway and I hope that a “good” oligarch with nothing to hide, applies to the UK court to have them lifted because I think the government will lose. An excellent article by Jonathan Ames (the times.co.uk) is well worth reading.  Many lawyers

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Hotel rip-offs

The experience of Edward Heaton (thetimes.co.uk 29 July 2014) in being stuck with a minimum charge at a West End hotel, is widespread. The hotel’s response is that guests are made aware of the policy on arrival and rates are printed on the menus. Mr Heaton says he knew nothing about the minimum charge. To be binding of such a clause has to be drawn to the attention of the customer in a clear way, not just some small print on a menu. Hopefully the appalling publicity which has been heaped on the Wellesley Hotel, will get them to mend

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Financial Conduct and Integrity

The way that Wonga and the leading clearing banks have demand letters sent out is summarised in an excellent article in the Law Society Gazette on 7 July by Elle McDonald What does not emerge is that there was no compulsion whatsoever to go to the trouble and expense of instructing a solicitor for such demands. On the contrary some of the “factory” operations that churn out these obviously mass produced demands, just get ignored or put “under the clock” by the debtor. It is not who writes the letter, but what it says. A simple demand to pay in

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Hell Hath No Fury

An excellent article in The Law Society Gazette (www.lawgazette.co.uk) 14 July 2014 highlights what they call “revenge attack”. When a relationship breaks down one party, in possession of intimate images of the other, posts them online in an attempt to punish the other. Private digital images are routinely swapped between adults in relationships, but on the understanding that they are private. Unauthorised insemination of intimate material is a breach of the article 8 of human right of privacy. Max Moseley was awarded £60,000, but the phone hacking settlements have been much higher. There is a case called Vidal-Hall v Google

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Ending a civil partnership

The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 (CPA) covers this and mirrors the matrimonial law. Everything that goes for divorce goes for civil partnership apart from the words ‘petition’ and ‘decree’ being swapped for ‘application’ and ‘order’. Civil partners are not “spouses” and a civil partnership cannot be dissolved on the grounds of adultery.  The other grounds; behaviour, separation and desertion apply. As a result of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 civil partners will be able to convert their civil partnership into a marriage which is easier than dissolving the civil partnership and then marrying. If you are in a

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Employment Law changes

The following employment law measures came into force on 6 April 2014: Financial Penalties for Employers Who Breach Employment Law An Employment Tribunal (ET) now has the discretionary power to impose a financial penalty on an employer who is found to have breached a worker’s employment law rights where the breach has one or more aggravating features. The penalty will be 50 per cent of any financial award, with a minimum penalty of £100 and a maximum of £5,000. The sum payable will be reduced by 50 per cent if the penalty is paid within 21 days. Acas Early Conciliation

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