Private & high net worth individuals

Tax returns are essentially a question of getting the computation right. We ask the right questions, get the right information and understand how to treat things correctly and fairly, while at the same time advise you on how to retain more of your annual earnings and gains. To do this well, we need to get to know you, and we therefore take time to build personal relationships and understand our clients’ needs.

Personal tax is becoming ever more complicated but as a member firm of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, we are always up to date with changes to legislation and best practice, which means that we are able to provide you with the best and most accurate advice at all times.

The seven volumes of tax law are indicative of the range of complexities that clients may encounter. Typically we find ourselves dealing with tax reliefs, capital gains and pension issues as well as international aspects such as residence and domicile, foreign incomes, capital gains and pension issues.

For our higher net worth clients, we also commonly deal with tax-relieving investments, pension contributions and withdrawals, trust and estate income, asset disposals and property issues.

HMRC are under more scrutiny than ever to maximise tax revenues and their methods are becoming increasingly aggressive. Whilst our clients don’t want to pay more tax than they should, they rely on us to look after them and ensure that HMRC don’t have cause to enquire into their affairs.

Knowing the rules is critical to ensuring that returns contain no mistakes; and long experience ensures that our clients’ tax affairs are presented properly and with adequate explanations.

Over the years our firm has thus built a very good reputation with the HMRC for ethical compliance; and this in turn means that our clients are less likely to be investigated.

Commonly, once assets go into trust they fall out of your estate completely after seven years, yet you can still retain control over the asset. Trusts are therefore often used to safeguard assets for future beneficiaries and to reduce inheritance tax for settlors.

Trustees must submit returns to HMRC each year, but there are special rules for the taxation of trust income and assets. In addition, there can be other periodic charges to be calculated and accounted for.

Many accountants do not work with trusts because of the complexities involved. However, at Tayabali & White we have the specialised knowledge and experience to deal with trust issues, and are often appointed by executors to advise on estate tax.

People are typically so busy earning their income that they are not very good at planning for their future. They know they should be doing so, but lack knowledge of the specifics to make it happen.

We regularly find that new clients have rarely had their tax, accounting or financial landscape and principles explained to them by their previous accountants. Consequently they really value an educational workshop that appraises them of the risks or challenges they or their family could be facing someday when they reach retirement, pass away or their spouse passes away.

Another critical component for many new clients is a check to see whether certain things have previously been considered either by themselves or their previous accountant. These include Inheritance Tax planning, reviews of wills, pensions, trusts and assets, longer term tax liabilities and income gaps over their lifetime.

By carefully prioritising the issues that affect you, we can help you identify aspects of your finances to focus on in the short-term and understand if there are any tax implications you might need to worry about or plan for in the longer run.

Mapping your personal goals and how you see your life panning out is a great way to understand the costs you should be planning for, and the savings or finances you will need to fund your hobbies, cover your retirement, pay your children’s costs or plan for inheritances.

Many of our clients have never done this before, and find it to be a highly illuminating exercise that they can revisit on a periodic basis with us. It allows us to understand your personal context and aspirations and to offer the best practical and personalised advice for managing and planning your finances in a longer term context.

Are you able to finance your life as you would like it to be lived over your lifetime? Our long term wealth planning service considers your personal life visioning goals and advises you on what adjustments to make to reach your personal goals and manage the risks you might expect to encounter along the way.

We create your personal balance sheet, which allows you evaluate your assets in the context of what you want out of your life over whatever time frame you choose to consider.

The most effective asset planning is done holistically and, to help us give you the best advice, our first step is to provide you with a full picture of your assets, liabilities and intentions. Until they engage us this is something that many of our clients have never done.

The effective asset threshold for an individual is typically £325,000 (£650,000 for married couples and civil partners) that can be passed on tax free at death to future generations, after which all value is generally taxed at 40%, making Inheritance Tax a major consideration, particularly for high net worth individuals.

If considered early enough, there are many strategies that can be applied to reduce or even eliminate Inheritance Tax. The sooner you start to plan, the more strategies there are available to you.

Trusts can be used to protect and safeguard assets, as well as mitigate Inheritance Tax. However, setting trusts up can be complicated – a trust deed needs to contain details of the settlor, the beneficiaries, the trustees, the assets, the powers of the trustees and any other wishes that the settlor may have, which requires great care and needs to be done correcly, or it can leave the trust open to uncertainty and it may not achieve what you want it to. We can help you with these considerations and liaise with your legal adviser.

Good planning is therefore critical. Also there are tax aspects to be considered, including lifetime Inheritance Tax, potential capital gains on whatever assets are put into the trust, annual trust tax on income and gains from trust assets, periodic 10 year tax charges on assets in trust, distribution of income or transfers of assets to beneficiaries and finally the need for annual trust accounts depending on the complexity of your trust’s affairs.

Many factors can have implications on what happens to your wealth, for example: the situation of your children or grandchildren, their ages, school fees or special needs; elderly parents with care needs or inheritances that need to be considered; or charities and philanthropic causes that are important to you.

Sometimes choices are not always about asset values and tax liabilities, as there are many personal considerations that need to be borne in mind, and that’s what we believe that really good future planning must encompass.

If you sell or give away certain assets at a profit of more than £3,000 pounds in any tax year, you may be liable to pay Capital Gains Tax. The top rate is 24%, though the reduced Business Asset Disposal Relief rate of 18% may be available in certain circumstances on the disposal of some business assets.

Capital Gains Tax is frequently misunderstood or overlooked, which can lead to significant and unexpected liabilities. We find there are often myths that need to be dispelled.

However, there are many reliefs and legitimate tax planning opportunities to help reduce or eliminate Capital Gains Tax. The key lies in pre-transaction planning – even as far back as the purchase of the asset. For this reason we like to talk regularly to our clients so that Capital Gains Tax can be managed as effectively as possible and to avoid unwanted surprises.

The starting point is to understand your personal financial position. A personal balance sheet shows you your assets (property, cash, investments etc.), liabilities (mortgages, loans, tax provisions) as well as your cumulative earnings and profits.

Most clients have never looked at their wealth this way before. This summary is powerful planning tool and gives clients the opportunity to make financial whether it is to strengthen the balance sheet to provide more security in retirement or to plan to reduce assets to support the family and to mitigate Inheritance Tax.

Such clear and powerful personal financial data enables you to make decisions and plan, giving you control over your affairs. We help clients to interpret the information and set their strategies, as well as to update and monitor the information on a regular basis.

Most individuals and families don’t monitor how the spend their money; yet this is a vital characteristic of successful businesses that we encourage our clients to emulate. If you know how you are spending your money you can decide whether you are focussing on your priorities, where to make economies or how to create forecasts.

A business would engage an accountant to help them with this exercise and to help with financial decsision-making and this is exactly what we offer our high net worth clients to help them stay in control of their wealth.

Coupled with the Personal Balance Sheet, Personal Cash Flow Analysis provides individuals and families with the crucial platform to make meaningful financial decisions.