Best practice questions to ask your tax expert
Tax On Divorce » August 12, 2024
On big and complex money cases tax is likely to feature quite heavily. Once the expert has been agreed – and if both solicitors are in agreement – it may be useful to have a joint call with the expert to set out the scope of the advice needed. The expert can help with the agenda but here are some suggested agenda items.
This should help to make the report as practical, targeted and relevant as possible.
Possible Agenda
- Any additional informational needs on part of expert to give guidance at this stage
- Consideration of the question posed:
- What is missing?
- What other tax-planning options need to be explored?
- Likely objections on the part of the judge to the instruction of the expert and how those should be addressed.
- What information will the expert need upon instruction
- Whether this could more conveniently be secured from the parties directly?
- If so, how will the solicitors be kept informed of the progress of that process?
- Timescale and cost of report … when are the fees due for settlement on the report?
- FPR 25.10 questions
- Whether they can be raised within 10 days of the report – if not what longer period will be needed
- Likely period for provision of responses by expert – any pressing hearings/ deadlines or dependency for those answers
- That the question raiser will discharge the costs arising in the first instance … timeframe for delivery of bill and when due for settlement.
Other situation-specific considerations
- On income issues:
- What has been the position historically? Eg was one joint accountant filing for both?
- What tax returns have been filed and what is outstanding
- On non-disclosure issues – possibly an area where a shadow expert would be helpful:
- Set out at the forefront the SJE’s duty/or non duty to disclose to HMRCBe considerate in what you tell the SJEHow many years does the non-disclosure affect?
- Is the purposes to get a figure for exposure or is the purpose to disclose to HMRC?
- On complex issues:
- Set out the background briefly, eg
- first or second marriages
- do any parties receive income from trusts
- Any residence or domicile issues
- Set out the background briefly, eg
Note: this has been taken from the publication Tax Implications on Family Breakdown by James Pierre and Sofia Thomas – the second edition of the book can be purchased here.