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A will apparently executed in 2012 by John Payne, leaving most of his estate to his son by his first marriage, has been overturned on the grounds that the attesting witnesses' evidence was unreliable. The England and Wales Court of Appeal instead admitted to probate an earlier will leaving everything to Payne's second wife, despite significant doubts about that will's execution and attestation, too. FATTO

FATTO

ESTATE DISPUTES: Some important judgments from last month

Currency repatriation requirements were extended on 14 April to cover loans issued by Russian residents to foreign borrowers, reducing the opportunities for businesses to shift funds abroad through non-repayable loans.

ESTATE DISPUTES: Hallyday family wins estate asset freeze while forced-heirship litigation continues

NETHERLANDS: Measures against 'letterbox companies' seek to improve country's reputation

INTERNATIONAL - UK: Foreign investors may be discouraged by capital gains tax on commercial property

PHILANTHROPY: Ikea's late founder structured business as three foundations

INTERNATIONAL - UK: Legislation this summer on register of foreign property-owners

The Japanese government's 2018 tax reform bill abolishes the recently introduced rule under which the heirs of a long-term resident foreigner who died outside Japan remain liable to Japanese inheritance tax (IHT) on estate assets anywhere in the world. The rule had threatened to derail the government's efforts to attract foreign talent to live and work in Japan, because it meant IHT liability could follow a foreign national for up to five years after leaving the country.

UK - BREXIT: More detail on post-Brexit rights for EU citizens and families

WEALTH MANAGEMENT - JERSEY: Success for plaintiffs in USD200 million Crociani case

INTERNATIONAL - HONG KONG: Multiple property stamp duty gap axed

INTERNATIONAL - MATRIMONIAL: Russian woman reportedly claims GBP11.6 billion from ex-husband

INTERNATIONAL - UK TRUSTS: Law implementing registers of trusts in force on 26 June 2017

AUSTRALIA: New tax on foreign owners of unoccupied homes

INTERNATIONAL - UK: Doubts cast on non-dom reforms' commencement date

INTERNATIONAL - European Union: Taxation at source must take into account non-resident taxpayer's domestic costs

A sale or purchase proposal is a document the parties may sign before the conveyance proper. It consists, alternatively, of a manifestation of the owner's willingness to sell to a probable purchaser or a manifestation of a possible purchaser's willingness to buy from the owner: in both cases by acceptance of the proposal, believe it or not, the contract of sale is concluded and becomes binding for both parties. Furthermore, the purchase or sale proposal is usually irrevocable: the signato

It often happens that, after a prospective property has been inspected and chosen, substantial agreement is reached with the other party even if this is not yet formalized in written form. It is advisable to contact a notary at this early stage before signing the preliminary contract (the so-called “compromesso”). In the preliminary contract, both signatories undertake to stipulate the definitive sale contract by a certain date and on given conditions. The preliminary agreement (even i

The following are examples of what needs to be included in a proposal for sale or purchase and in a preliminary contract: - the precise description of the asset or assets; - the exact identification of the owner or owners and of the purchaser or purchasers; - the obligations of the vendor and of the purchaser; - the price of the sale and method of payment; - the conditions of the conveyance and relevant guarantees; - documentation of the history of the asset or assets; -

Notaries provide the community with a complex service, they carry out a public function of the State within the framework of an independent profession. The notarial deed not only regulates transactions between parties, but it provides added value in at least three respects: - a contract signed before a notary is unchallengable and hence it avoids expensive and time-consuming litigation procedures; - it is enforceable and hence it can be used to recover credits and it constitutes pri

Having broached subjects from the vendor's point of view as well, it is useful to recall that the burdensome INVIM (a tax originally levied on the vendor consequent upon his sale of a property) has been definitively abolished, to the great relief of the notary as well, given not only the complexity of calculating it but also (as always) the irksome role of tax collector that the law imposed on him. Nevertheless, it is helpful to emphasize that the vendor may still have to pay certain sums

The rate of interest is usually set in percentage terms; it may be fixed, which means it is the same for the whole duration of the loan, or variable, which means it is determined with reference to changing parameters that are set by objective, impartial criteria. For example, Euribor is an average quotation for variable rates calculated using objective criteria in the EU financial markets; while I.R.S. (interest instalments swap) is the financial reference parameter for establishing the cost

Following marriage, unless an explicit declaration to the contrary is made at the time of the ceremony, spouses find themselves in a shared property arrangement, this being the automatic legal regime in force in our system since 20/9/1975. This means that any purchase made by a spouse during the marriage is subject to legal community (or, simply put, is common property) with the other. The law excludes (to take a few of the more important cases) only assets acquired by donation or inherit

The rules governing this matter are extremely complex and may be schematically simplified by looking at a subjective profile and an objective profile. As regards the former, there are two main types of tax linked to real estate conveyances: stamp duty (imposta di registro) (and the related mortgage and cadastral taxes) and VAT. Whether one tax or the other is applied depends mainly but not exclusively on the nature of the vendor. Stamp duty is applicable in all cases where the vendo

The purchaser's main obligation is obviously to pay the agreed price to the vendor at the time the sale contract is completed. Where an advance payment has been made as a deposit, the difference must be paid to make up the full agreed price. It is legitimate for the purchaser to request a deferment of payment, but it is not his right to insist upon it, it being left to the discretion of the vendor whether or not to grant this: the purchaser's obligation to pay the price in full derives fr

A property conveyance gives rise to a series of rights and obligations for both parties. For a number of the rights of one of the contracting parties, there are corresponding and equal obligations of the other party, so that the vendor and the purchaser find themselves involved in an interactive web of expectations to be met and duties to be performed. While some of these rights/obligations, such as the payment/receipt of the purchase price and the delivery/receipt of the property, are

A company has a life of its own which is independent from that of its partners: it will go on living even after its partners die or it can be dissolved and wound up even if its partners are alive.All companies have a legal status and as such they have assets that are distinct from those of the partners that constitute the company. They have a name, a registered office and, hence are legal entities that are quite distinct from the individuals making up the company.They are non-personified col

Home loans are generally guaranteed by a mortgage and so are the preserve, in our legal system, of the notary. The presence of the notarial profession has become more significant with the recent increase in the number of such contracts, a result of the lower cost of money (though this is still subject to fluctuations) and improvements in living standards that allow an ever greater number of citizens to aspire to the ownership of their home and often of a second home as well. Year after ye

After long years of waiting, the decree-law that introduces greater protection for the purchasers of houses that are in the process of being built has finally been published in the Official Gazette (6 July 2005, n° 155).  The measures introduced under this new law will have a major impact: indeed, according to estimates made by trade associations, since 1995 more than 200,000 Italian families have been involved in thousands of bankruptcies of construction firms. Decree Law n° 122 of 20 Ju

Sales must be subject to stamp duty (so sales subject to VAT are excluded) and the purchasers must be physical persons who are not acting in the interests of a commercial, artistic or professional business activity. So the price-value system also applies to sales made by companies, businesses or entities, so long as the purchasers are "physical persons" and the transaction is subject to stamp duty (not VAT). In other words, in addition to all sales where both parties are “private”, the price-val

Law no. 52 of 1996 introduced rules into the Italian legal system to protect the consumer in his contractual relations with professionals. In order to rationalize regulations which have been complicated by a long sequence of amendments, a Consumer Code was recently published (Legislative Decree no. 206 of 6 September 2005), which contains a thorough reworking of most of the consumer-protection rules. Article 3 of the Consumer Code defines a "consumer" as a physical individual who acts

The price-value mechanism is applicable on condition that the contract document shows the full price agreed: "If even part of the agreed price is hidden, taxes are due on the whole amount and there is a fine of from fifty to one hundred per cent of the difference between the taxes due and those already levied on the amount declared, after subtracting the amount of any fine”.

A home loan is a contract whereby one party, called the lender (usually a bank), transfers a given sum of money to a second party known as the borrower, so that the latter may use it for a given time in exchange for paying the former an amount representing interest. To this outline of the essential structure and functions of the contract must be added that a home loan includes various clauses that are not always immediately comprehensible but are necessary for regulating all the relations

The sale contract includes the personal data of both the vendor and the purchaser, including their fiscal codes, the description of the property to be transferred with an indication of its location, its nature and its boundaries, as well as its identification at the land titles office and a number of obligatory pieces of information regarding town planning and building regulations. The vendor must declare whether the property was built before 1 September 1967; if the building took place a

The Consiglio Nazionale del Notariato (C.N.N.) is the professional order of notaries. It is made up of 20 notaries directly elected by all practising notaries in three-yearly elections. There is a limit of two consecutive mandates. The three members of the Audit Committee are elected according to the same procedure.The 20 elected councillors, after they are installed in office, nominate a President, a Vice President, a Secretary and an Executive Committee. The tasks of the Consiglio Na

It is important to understand what the types of buildings are to which the duties and guarantees examined below apply.  Under this law “buildings to be built” are those for which the building permit or other authorization to build was applied for after the entry into force of the law (21 July 2005), and which are not yet finished, and hence “the fit for use” (agibilità) statement has not been issued (article 1, paragraph 1, letter d). This means that on the one hand the law does not apply to

The law completes the range of measures introduced to protect the purchaser by extending to the purchaser the right to parcel out the loan and the mortgage on the building being built, and the prohibition on selling before the division of the loan into quotas, or before discharge of the mortgage or foreclosure where these are not taken over by the new purchaser (Articles 7 and 8). The purchaser of a house to be used as his/her home has the right of pre-emption in case of an auction (Art.

First of all, the purchaser has the right to have the vendor consign the property at the time of the notarised conveyance, upon payment of the purchase price, in its known state, with any agreed accessories, free of persons and things. It is legitimate for the purchaser to request consignment of the asset before the definitive transfer: however it is not his right to insist upon it, it being left to the d

In order to grant a home loan, the bank requires a guarantee: by definition, the most common of these is the mortgage. A mortgage gives the bank the right to be repaid from the proceeds of any forced sale of the asset offered as collateral, with priority over other creditors. A mortgage has better legal standing if it is a first mortgage, i.e. if there are no higher-priority mortgages: a "land credit" guarantee generally requires a first mortgage. A mortgage is established over the

This is the property regime whereby two spouses continue to accumulate assets after marriage exactly as though they were not married. An asset acquired by one spouse remains his or hers alone, and the other spouse has no rights over it.Naturally, the spouses may jointly acquire an asset but each may then resell (or donate) his or her half without the consent of the other (as opposed to what happens under the joint ownership regime).

The conveyance may rightly be considered the notarial transaction par excellence, considering all the actions the law imposes on the notary following settlement (to cite the more important ones: filing, cadastral registration, transcription, notification of the competent authorities specified by law etc.). It is the notary who writes the contract after having established the intentions of the parties and after having obtained all useful information and carried out all the necessary search

A foreigner may make a will, i.e. indicate in an official document to whom he intends leaving his property after his death. A foreigner also may give away assets during his lifetime.

In the first place, the vendor is obliged to consign to the purchaser the property sold in the state in which it is with vacant possession, free of persons and things, at the time the contract of sale is notarised, i.e. at the same time as the balance of the price is paid. The vendor has the option, however, of allowing the future purchaser to occupy the property even before the actual change of ownership, it being understood that because he is still the owner of the asset he remains resp

Any change, even only a purely formal change, in the clauses of the by-laws of a company is considered to be an amendment to the by-laws.  As a rule this competence belongs to the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and the relevant decision must be written in the minutes by a notary public and then registered with the Register of Companies.The decision must be taken by a majority vote, any clause in the bylaws setting forth that unanimity is required to change the Memorandum of Association

The limited liability company is intended for smaller companies than joint-stock companies, and the equity participation in the company has a personal connotation which is absent in the s.p.a.  In fact, it has a limited number of shareholders who are not personally responsible for the social security liabilities, even if they have acted in the name and on behalf of the company.The legislation in place as of 1 January 2004 has had a major impact on the limited liability company, which is an e

With the provisions that entered into force as of 1 January 2004, the dissolution of companies with share capital is governed by new rules.A company may be dissolved because: its term of duration has expired,  the corporate aims have been achieved or circumstances have set in that make it impossible to achieve them, the shareholders’ meeting cannot or will not function, the share capital has dropped to values below the minimum legal requirements (but the company may decide to reconstitute th

Once upon a time it was enough to say that a foreigner was someone who was not an Italian citizen. This definition – to be clear – is still valid. Except that Article 17 of the EC Treaty institutes a citizenship of the European Union which is attributed to anyone who is a citizen of a Member State. Belonging to the European Union brings with it various consequences, some of which are very important, like the prohibition on

Let us take the case in which the Parties decide to undertake an entrepreneurial activity by setting up  a partnership.What would the general characteristics of such a company be?First of all, as regards the unlimited and joint liability of the partners:- in the case of a general partnership, all the partners have unlimited and joint liability;- in the case of an informal partnership, all the partners have unlimited and joint liability, but there can be an agreement whereby the partners who

Duration is not an essential element for the establishment of partnerships. The parties may also expressly agree on indefinite duration.When a date of termination is envisaged, then on that date the company can be dissolved.The termination date may be modified or eliminated by the partners via:- express extension. In this case all the partners expressly decide on a new date of termination or on continuing the company’s life indefinitely;- tacit extension. If, after the date of termination th