In a telling reminder that the tax authorities are alert to unexplained bank deposits, a civil engineer has been directed to pay a £24,924 income tax demand – as well as a swingeing £11,216 penalty – after an inquiry into his tax affairs that
The Patents County Court was only formed in 2010, but has already become a victim of its success. Because of the great increase in workload of the court, it has been ‘rebranded’ as the ‘Intellectual Property Enterprise Court’, and has become a specialist court
In a stark warning to businesses to watch out for tradesmen offering bogus property services, a crook pretended that scores of commercial premises had to have their drinking water compulsorily tested and hit them with substantial charges. John Stewart Richmond targeted businesses in Hertfordshire
In the context of an environmental disaster in which massive oil pollution was caused by a ship breaking up off the Spanish coast, important and novel issues have been raised as to whether a foreign sovereign state can be required to submit to arbitration
The Government’s new Employee Share Ownership scheme (ESO), which came into effect on 1 September 2013, has received a very muted welcome, bordering on total indifference, from the business community and its advisers. The scheme allows employees to give up some of their
In a ringing warning to businesses that an unusually good deal can sometimes signal fraud, ‘grey market’ traders who were refused a £4.3 million VAT deduction after being innocently caught up in a sophisticated missing trader fraud have triumphed over the tax authorities at
In a stark reminderof the hazards of playing the option markets, even for the most sophisticated investor, a multi-national company which was struck by a blizzard of margin calls after engaging in a series of ill-fated currency option transactions has been found liable to
In a case which underlined that court deadlines are no trivial matter and a failure to meet them can have devastating consequences, ship owners came within a whisker of losing their right to pursue a $780,000 compensation claim following a maritime collision in the
In a case which vividly revealed the power of a famous name, Hollywood giant, Paramount Pictures Corporation, has succeeded in wresting the internet domain name, paramount.co.uk, from a British businessman who, through a broker, had offered to sell it to the studio for £120,000.
Death-bed wills are fraught with problems and certainly legal advice, should be taken wherever possible. Recently, a death-bed will led to a family tearing itself apart in High Court proceedings over a £630,000 estate – when the input of a solicitor could well have
