North America

He had a diverse range of business interests held through a variety of trust structures established by him and his family. The client's previous adviser had retired and he asked us to conduct a review to ensure that he was compliant with his US tax reporting obligations and to advise on the evolution of his trust holding structures. This review was completed and to the client's satisfaction confirmed that he had no undiscovered liabilities. Since then we have worked with the client and his family to develop a plan for the future devolution of his wealth and the maintenance of his children.

While discussing the estate planning we drew his attention to potential issues that would arise from the way the sale deal was being structured and advised him to effect alternative structuring which resulted in him avoiding a potentially significant exposure to double taxation. We have since manage to assist him with appropriate structuring through which the family will organise philanthropic activities.

We advised on family and business governance for estate planning and succession purposes. This involved preparing Wills and trusts which were compliant with Indian law and also US tax constraints (as there are US citizen beneficiaries), advising on US citizenship and expatriation, advising on corporate and real estate structuring and lifetime gifting, advising on the Family Constitution and establishing a single Family Office for the family.

The team have undertaken structural planning projects involving the family's trust structures and for individual family members in the light of the current (and anticipated changes both in the US and UK) tax regimes of all the relevant jurisdictions, trust and investment issues arising from the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the full spectrum of investments owned and taking into account the upcoming age of majority of some of the US/UK beneficiaries.

This advice was to eliminate large amounts of historic income and gains that otherwise would be adversely taxed at nearly confiscatory rates under the US 'throwback rules' when eventually distributed to US person beneficiaries who also are UK resident, while preserving the trust's favourable classification as an 'excluded property' and 'protected' trust for UK income, gains and inheritance tax purposes.

We advised a leading American University to renew its sponsor licence in order to enable the continued sponsorship of study abroad programs in the UK.

Withers represented our client in litigation involving the client’s former employee’s disclosure of the physical address of the business’s headquarters. In a precedent setting decision, the court ruled that the physical address associated with a business may qualify as a trade secret and a former employee could be liable under the Defend Trade Secrets Act for their public disclosure of the company's address.